N Korea puts off family reunion program with South

North Korea has put off a planned program with the South for reuniting families separated during the division of the Korean Peninsula, citing Seoul’s continued “hostile” approach toward Pyongyang.

“We postpone the impending reunions of separated families until a normal atmosphere is created for talks and negotiations to be able to move forward,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea as saying on Saturday.

“As long as the South’s conservatives deal (with) inter-Korean relations hostility and abuse…such a basic humanitarian issue as family reunions cannot be resolved,” said the committee.

Pyongyang further lashed out at Seoul over holding joint military exercises with the United States and its recent crackdown on pro-Pyongyang activists.

South Korean government officials were not immediately available for comment.

On August 23, North and South Korea agreed to hold a round of family reunions, which allows 100 people from each side to meet their relatives from the other side at the Diamond Mountain resort in southeastern North Korea from September 25 to September 30.

The reunion program, which was suspended after the Pyongyang’s shelling of a South Korean border island in November 2010, come after South Korean President Park Geun-hye said earlier that Seoul would allow divided families to contact each other.

On August 18, North Korea also expressed willingness for the resumption of family reunions on September 19.

Pyongyang also announced that it would seek to restart South Korean tours to the North’s Mount Kumgang resort.

The two Koreas recently made an agreement on the resumption of operations at their jointly-operated industrial park in the Kaesong border area, which was shut down by Pyongyang after the United States and South Korea held military exercises in April.

The Korean Peninsula has been locked in a cycle of military rhetoric over the past few months.

North Korea blocked access to jointly-run Kaesong Industrial Zone and withdrew its 53,000 employees in April amid rising tensions with Seoul.

South Korea insisted that the closure was a unilateral move by the North. However, Pyongyang argued that antagonistic measures and threats by South Korea, particularly a series of joint military exercises with the US, have led to the closure of Kaesong.

Seoul has staged a series of military exercises separately or jointly with Washington since December 2012, when Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket which it said put a satellite into orbit.