N.Korea Threatens to Cancel Family Reunions

Our launching of a satellite is for peaceful purposes.

The North has claimed it was compelled to go nuclear due to Washington’s hostile policy against it, though the USA has repeatedly said it has no hostile intentions toward North Korea.

She also said a rocket launch would harm the hard-won mood for inter-Korean dialogue and undermine the efforts to resume the long-stalled talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

“The South Korean government urges North Korea to immediately stop its threats”, a ministry spokesperson said at a briefing in response to the statement carried by Pyongyang’s official media.

“It is possible that North Korea will conduct a long-range rocket launch around the party anniversary”, Kim said.

To prevent the North’s provocations, Seoul has been stepping up its diplomacy through bilateral and multilateral high-level talks. Canada has a North Korean human rights day.

North Korea has threatened to cancel a reunion for families separated by the Korean War, after “reckless” remarks by South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program and human rights record.

“North Korea presents an ongoing security challenge to everybody”, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters before the meeting. The reunions are a key part of a recent deal that defused military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Asked about the threat of sanctions, he said, “We have nothing to be afraid of”.

A few analysts question whether diplomatic pressure from its ally would keep Pyongyang from taking provocative actions.

Family reunions are a pressing humanitarian issue, as most separated family members are in their 70s and 80s, and wish to see their long-lost relatives before they die.

“North Korea’s leaders have a choice to make: Denuclearize and attain the peace, security and prosperity it is seeking, or stay along the current path and face increasing diplomatic isolation and economic deprivation”, said Anna Richey-Allen, State Department East Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau spokeswoman.

A provocation involving a ballistic missile or nuclear technology would break multiple United Nations resolutions, which in itself would call into question the scheduled reunions from October. 20-26.