What's behind North Korea's threats against South Korea-U.S. military drills?

Reunions of families separated since the Korean War are set to be held next week for the first time in years... but the threat of yet another cancellation hangs over the event. North Korea says it may be forced to call off the reunions because of Seoul's plans to hold its annual joint military drills with Washington. Our Connie Lee has more on why Pyongyang is so dead-set against the exercises. The verbal threats from North Korea are unrelenting-- Stop the military drills or face "holocaust"... Continue with the drills, and prepare for "nuclear war." Go ahead with the drills and see the reunions of separated families cancelled next week. But can we really expect Kim Jong-un to call off the reunions, once again? "They will not this time- that's my understanding. // This year it's a little bit different. They've been pressured by China and neighboring countries. And on top of that, North Korea needs cash money..." Kim Chul-woo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses says the recent threats are part of a propaganda game Pyongyang launches each and every start of the new year... to unify the people of the communist state. "It's kind of a rhetorical propaganda to point out the offensive nature of these exercises. But that's not the case. These exercises are very defensive-oriented." The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills, set to start on February 24th and run until April 18th, are among the largest military exercises in scale in South Korea. Conducted annually by the South Korean military alongside U.S. Armed Forces... they include 200-thousand Korean troops... and more than 12-thousand U.S troops. The joint drills, which include computer-based exercises and a set of ground, air and naval operations... test the capabilities of the South Korean and U.S militaries in the event of an all-out war. These are not unfamiliar practices or drills to the Korean Peninsula-- but Pyongyang often takes the opportunity to escalate tensions between the two Koreas, and justify their nuclear and weapons programs. "North Korea's propagandistic maneuver to legitimize their way of actions is a very critical point. // The Republic of Korea and the U.S. have studied and prepared very decisively for the last 20 years, so we don't have to worry about the security situation here in South Korea." Connie Lee, Arirang News.