The puppet Ministry of Unification turned down the application made by the academic headquarters under the South Side Committee for Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration for a contact with its counterpart of the north in Shenyang, China on July 21. It also disallowed even working contacts between the peasants and youth and students headquarters under it and their counterparts in the north under unreasonable pretexts on July 24.

The ministry said that if south Korean organizations of the reunification movement are allowed to have working contacts with the north, it is not sure about their "security" and they may be forced to "serve the purpose of the north side." It also pressurized those organizations to give up contacts themselves before applying for those contacts. All these facts should not be overlooked.

A spokesman for the above-said committee said that the authorities are now blocking even non-governmental exchanges in a third country, not content with its persistent actions taken to disallow contacts with the north. This was a violation of the spirit of the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration, it added.

The chief secretary of the peasant headquarters of the committee noted that the actions taken by the ministry to block even non-governmental exchanges under the situation where the inter-Korean relations have been suspended substantially prove that the "policy toward the north" touted by the "government" is hypocritical.

The chairman of the planning committee of the academic headquarters of the committee stressed that with nothing can the authorities justify the actions taken to disallow even elementary working contacts.

The executive chairman of the youth and students headquarters of the committee noted that his organization would conduct a protest campaign against the actions taken by the ministry to disallow the above-said contacts and urged the authorities to ponder over them, though belatedly, and immediately stop such foolish actions against reunification.