Pyongyang, November 1 (KCNA) -- The People for Achieving Peace and Reunification and other civic and social organizations in south Korea held the 84th meeting for peace and disarmament in Seoul on Oct. 28 to demand the puppet authorities roll back their policy for increasing military spending.

Speakers at the meeting referred to the fact that the "government" submitted to the "National Assembly" a "bill on defense budget for 2009" calling for 28,637.9 billion won or 7.5 percent bigger than this year's.

Noting that the snowballing military spending is further deepening the economic crisis, they urged the authorities to make an overall reexamination of the "bill."

They demanded the authorities drastically cut down the funds for the transfer of the U.S. military bases, south Korea's share of the funds for the upkeep of the U.S. forces and others.

A message of protest to the NA read out at the meeting termed the above-said acts actions of blocking peaceful reunification on the Korean Peninsula and gravely threatening the lives of the people undergoing serious economic difficulties.

Even the NA which should speak for the will of the people is taking the lead in supporting the authorities' moves to increase the military spending, it deplored.

It branded the action to increase the military spending for purchasing weapons for a preemptive attack on the north as a treacherous act of diametrically running counter to the trend of the times towards the building of a peace-keeping mechanism on the Korean Peninsula and demanded the authorities retract it at once.