the meeting in panmunjom was the first since south korean president park geun hye took office. a focus of discussion was the annual military drill scheduled between south korea and the u.s. before the talks north korea had offered to allow reunions of families separated by the korean war. it looked like this offer could become a sort of bargaining chip. the north asked the south to postpone its drill. but south korean officials insisted the issue of families was unrelated and they turned down the north's request to put off the exercises. the fact the talks were held at all is a surprise. last year north korea raised tensions with south korea and the u.s. by declaring its unilateral cancellation of the ceasefire agreement that ended the korean war. later north korea lashed out at south korean president park geun hye. >> reporter: not long after this north korean leader kim jong un said in his new year's speech that his country must be prepared to improve relations with the south. he said it should show a flexible policy and a conciliatory attitude. in the middle of last month no

. >> south korean officials say the two sides will held preparatory talks in panmunjom. the talks will take place as early as wednesday. south korea has proposed that family reunions be held from february 17th through the 22nd that a resort in north korea. pyongyang remains strongly against south korea's joint military exercise with the united states. the drill is due to start late this month in the south. attention is focused on whether north korea will use the upcoming talks to demand the suspension of the drill, or if it will seek to impose any other conditions for holding reunions. >>> government officials in moscow allowed demonstrators to take to the streets sunday, just days after the start of the sochi winter olympic games. analysts believe president vladimir putin is trying to dodge criticism of russia's handling of human rights issues. some groups have demanded the release of political prisoners. while others called for the guarantee of equal rights for gay people. organizers say about 6,000 people attended sunday's demonstration. a far higher number than the g