North Korea on Sept. 21 announced the indefinite postponement of a series of reunions — for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War — that were set to start Sept. 25 at Mount Kumgang in the country. The reunions would have been the first in almost three years. North Korea's unilateral decision is highly regrettable from a humanitarian viewpoint. It will plunge the relationship between Pyongyang and Seoul, which had thawed in recent months, back into a chilly state.
North Korea has carried out provocative acts, including launching what it claimed was an artificial satellite into orbit in December by using a long-range rocket, exploding a nuclear device — its third nuclear explosion test — in February and declaring the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War null and void in March. It also forced South Koreans to leave the Kaesong industrial park in late April. Some 53,000 North Korean workers work at some 120 factories in the area run by South Korean companies.
Later, the North appeared to have changed its course from provocation to dialogue. It resumed talks with South Korea over the industrial park. On Sept. 16, the operations of the industrial park resumed. In an international sports event for weightlifting held in Pyongyang on Sept. 14, the South Korean flag was hoisted and the South Korean national anthem was sung for the first time in an official event in North Korea.