DPRK's anti-South Korea condemnation falls after peace overture

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) scaled down its anti-South Korean condemnation via radio broadcasts near the border line, Seoul's defense ministry said Monday. Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a routine press briefing that the DPRK's threats and slandering of South Korea through radio programs broadcast near the inter-Korean border have been in a falling trend recently. Excluding the reduction in the broadcast slandering, there has been no"visible" stop in military activities detected from the DPRK yet, the spokesman said. The DPRK has been conducting winter drills since December last year. His comments came after the DPRK offered to South Korea on Jan. 16 through the so-called "important proposal" to stop all hostile acts, including provoking and slandering the other side, starting from Jan. 30 on the eve of the Lunar New Year. The DPRK has flown no propaganda balloon, which held leaflets denouncing South Korea, near the western sea border since it called for Seoul to halt all hostile acts, according to military officials cited by Yonhap News Agency. Pyongyang proposed to Seoul Monday to hold the working-level contacts between Red Cross officials within this week to sort out details on the agreed reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. The two Koreas have agreed to hold the family reunion from Feb. 17 to 22 at the scenic Mount Kumgang resort in the DPRK's southeast coast.