Anchor: The prospects for an inter-Korean family reunion event are dimming as the North has not positively responded to the South's proposal to discuss the issue within this month. Beginning the last week of January, the North's powerful Defense Commission instead threatened the South Korean government for not agreeing to its terms. Seoul for its part made it clear that it will not accept any of the preconditions the North is demanding for talks.
Our Bae Joo-yon wraps up the latest development.
 
Report: North Korea's powerful National Defense Commission criticized the South Korean government.

It claimed Seoul is distorting Kim Jong-un's willingness to hold inter-Korean talks as if it were a strategy to get out of international isolation and economic doldrums.
 
[Sound bite: National Defense Commission Statement (Korean Central TV on Jan.25 / Korean)]
“If [the South] continues to challenge historic steps to bring about a great shift and change in inter-Korean relations, it will face a reign of stern punishment... While arguing freedom of expression is applicable to foreigners, [The South] has dragged even Americans into its anti-Republic schemes."
 
Announcing the hawkish statement through Korean Central Television on Sunday, the commission blamed Seoul for allowing anti-Pyongyang leaflet activity by a South Korean civic group and a U.S.-based rights organization. The North also raised issues with the South's joint military drills with the U.S. 
 
North Korea experts like Professor Nam Sung-wook of Korea University explain that the North is implying the possibility of armed provocations.
 
[Sound bite: Professor Nam Sung-wook - Dept. of North Korean Studies, Korea University (Korean)]
“[I believe] while urging the South to take practical measures, the North is warning the South that it will be ready to engage in armed provocations if talks are not held the way they intend."
 
Amid signs of a worsening atmosphere for the talks, a Seoul spokesman made it clear that the government has no plans to cancel planned South Korea-U.S. military drills, or lift current sanctions placed on the North just for the sake of holding talks. 
 
While reaffirming the South's position, Unification Ministry spokesman Lim Byeong-cheol also said the South is no longer urging the North to agree to cross-border dialogue within a set deadline.
 
In the Defense Ministry, Spokesman Kim Min-seok also responded to the North Korean statement, underlining the South Korean military's readiness to sternly respond to any provocation by the North.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.