North Korea briefly boycotts day of family reunions

North Korea today briefly boycotted a second day of reunions of families separated by the division of the Korean peninsula in an apparent protest against South Korean journalists’ use of language unacceptable to the communist state.

About 150 South Koreans began a three-day reunion programme at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort yesterday, meeting their North Korean relatives for the first time in more than half a century.

The families were to hold a second day of meetings this morning, but their North Korean relatives didn’t arrive for more than four hours.

The reunion programme was back on track after the North agreed to end the boycott.

It wasn’t clear what prompted the North’s move, but it was believed to be related to its anger over South Korean journalists’ use of the word “abductees” to describe South Korean civilians, mostly fishermen, living in North Korea after their boats were seized.