The statement said that the October 4 declaration which was adopted thanks to the noble patriotic intention of General Secretary Kim Jong Il who has rendered devoted services for the country's reunification serves as a banner encouraging the Koreans in their efforts for independent development and reunification and a programme for fully implementing the June 15 joint declaration.

Korea should be reunified by the concerted efforts of the Koreans under any circumstances, the statement noted, and continued:

The Korean Peninsula still remains divided because the present south Korean regime keeps pursuing the policy of inciting confrontation with the north and begs the U.S. to remain in south Korea permanently while entirely depending on it.

Recently the south Korean regime staged large-scale war exercises in collusion with the U.S., pushing the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war.

If the south Korean regime truly respects the October 4 declaration and stands for reunification it should stop pursuing the policy of inciting confrontation with the north and that of depending on outsiders but make a policy switchover as early as possible in the direction of finding out a way for reunifying the country by the concerted efforts of the Koreans.