North Korea is returning to its provocative habits in the lead-up to the 70th anniversary of the founding of its ruling Workers’ Party on Oct. 10. It announced Tuesday that it had restarted all facilities, including a uranium enrichment plant and a reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, at the Yongbyon nuclear complex. The announcement came a day after its space agency said that it was ready to launch satellites aboard long-range rockets “at the times and locations determined by the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party.”

The North has a track record of firing off long-range rockets shortly before conducting nuclear tests on important occasions. Its latest moves may be seen as signaling that Pyongyang will repeat this pattern in the run-up to the anniversary of its ruling party’s founding.

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un may hope to consolidate his internal control by acting on the formula.

As some experts here note, however, it seems still too early to judge on how far Pyongyang will actually go in putting its announcements into action. Its latest moves may be aimed at strengthening its position and gauging the stance of South Korea and other neighboring powers ahead of engaging in key negotiations.

Concern is rising here that the moves will likely dampen the hard-won conciliatory mood between the two Koreas following their landmark deal on easing tensions on the peninsula in late August. Seoul appears particularly concerned about the possibility that the reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, which is scheduled for Oct. 20-26, will be scuttled.

The North may calculate that, in this atmosphere, the South may be more willing to make concessions at high-level talks to be held under the agreement reached last month.

South Korea and other participants in the six-party talks aimed at dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal have recently been stepping up efforts to resume the negotiations stalled since 2008. The North seems to be sending a message that it will stick to a policy of developing nuclear weapons and the economy simultaneously ahead of a possible resumption of the multilateral negotiations that also involve the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.

Whatever intentions Pyongyang may have, Seoul and other regional powers should get the recalcitrant regime to recognize that its outdated provocative approach will only lead to endangering its own survival. The North should be reminded that it will face grave measures by the U.N. Security Council if it goes ahead with another rocket launch or a fourth nuclear test.

The South also needs to propose high-level inter-Korean talks to warn against further provocations from the North. Seoul should make it clear that Pyongyang’s additional rocket launch or nuclear detonation would definitely cause an “abnormal situation” mentioned in the Aug. 25 agreement and prompt it to resume cross-border propaganda broadcasts and take more severe retaliatory measures. The high-level talks could also be instrumental in discussing substantial measures to increase mutual cooperation if the North changes its course of action.