N Korea extends ‘peace offer’ to Seoul
Friday, 24 January 2014
North Korea has sent an open letter to the South calling for reconciliation and an end to "hostile military acts".
The letter, published in North Korea's state media, comes weeks before South Korea is due to hold joint military drills with the US.
South Korea dismissed the letter as having a "hidden motive", BBC News Asia reports on 24 January.
Correspondents say that tensions on the Korean peninsula traditionally rise ahead of the annual drills, which Pyongyang has condemned as provocative.
The military drills scheduled for next month are a source of great irritation to the North, which sees them as aggressive preparations for war.
While North Korea is appearing to offer reconciliation, its rhetoric has been accompanied by thinly-veiled threats not to "rashly reject" the proposals, the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul reports.
The question on many minds is what the North will do when the drills go ahead, the BBC correspondent adds.