The two Koreas moved a step closer Monday to resuming reunions for families separated by the Korean War, although final agreement could be derailed by a row over South Korea-US military drills.

After weeks of back-and-forth, and a period of silence from North Korea, the two rivals finally settled on a date for preparatory talks to set up a reunion event at the North's Mount Kumgang resort.

A senior North Korean diplomat has scoffed at sensational rumors that the executed uncle of leader Kim Jong-Un was stripped naked and fed to a pack of starving dogs.

"No, no... he was shot to death," Hyun Hak-Bong, the communist nation's ambassador to Britain, told Sky News in an interview that aired Thursday.

South Korea Thursday called on North Korea to honor its promise to hold a reunion of families from the two countries who have separated for decades, after days of silence by Pyongyang.

The North unexpectedly announced on Friday last week that it was willing to hold a reunion and the South on Monday suggested holding working-level talks to arrange details.

North Korea appears to be expanding its main launch site to permit more advanced missiles which may eventually be able to reach the United States, a think tank said Wednesday.

Analyzing satellite images of the Sohae launch site over the past two months, Johns Hopkins University's U.S.-Korea Institute said North Korea apparently tested a rocket engine needed for its road-mobile KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missile.

South Korea has voiced regret after North Korea offered no response to a proposal for talks on resuming reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

In a cross-border message earlier this week, Seoul's Unification Ministry had suggested working-level talks on Wednesday to work out details for holding a reunion event.

The U.S. military is scaling back an annual exercise with South Korea next month and will not deploy an aircraft carrier or fly strategic bombers for the drill, officials said Tuesday.

Last year Washington put on a show of military might for the exercise in response to saber-rattling by North Korea. But the United States is adopting a lower profile this time around, apparently due to some conciliatory steps by Pyongyang.

South Korea said it would carry out a live fire exercise Tuesday near the disputed sea border with North Korea, despite Pyongyang's warning of "grave consequences" if it went ahead.

Defense Ministry Spokesman Kim Min-Seok told reporters that the North had sent a faxed message on Monday, demanding the exercise involving artillery batteries on Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands in the Yellow Sea be called off.

South Korea proposed Monday holding family reunions for those separated by the Korean War in mid-February, ahead of joint military drills with the United States that North Korea wants canceled.

Seoul came up with the dates after the North unexpectedly announced on Friday it was willing to hold the event -- the latest in a series of conciliatory gestures from Pyongyang that the South has treated with skepticism.

North Korea took its demand for a thaw in ties with South Korea to the United Nations on Friday, urging its rival to "end the vicious cycle of slandering and hatred."

U.N. ambassador Sin Son-Ho gave a rare press conference setting out the North's proposals to avoid a "nuclear holocaust" and condemning South Korea's planned war games with U.S. forces.

North Korea called Friday for the resumption of reunions for families separated since the Korean War, saying the program could help improve cross-border ties.

The North's Red Cross faxed a message to its South Korean counterpart, calling for a family reunion event after the the time of the Lunar New Year on January 31, according to its official Korean Central News Agency.