Rodong Sinmun Monday says this in a signed commentary.

Recalling that recently a group of warships of the south Korean forces perpetrated such unpardonable criminal act as opening fire on a patrol boat of the Navy of the Korean People's Army on routine guard duty in the waters of the north side in the West Sea of Korea, the commentary says:

If the proposal for replacing the armistice agreement with a peace accord, previously advanced by the DPRK, had been carried into practice, the Korean Peninsula would have turned into a peaceful zone free from war danger and there would have been no such case of armed conflict.

It is impossible to prevent the recurrence of war and any accidental armed conflict with the outdated DPRK-U.S. armistice agreement, which has already been reduced to no more than wastepaper due to the U.S. perfidy.

To replace the armistice agreement with a peace agreement as early as possible is one of the most reasonable and practical ways for establishing a new peacekeeping mechanism in the Korean Peninsula and turning the present unstable state of ceasefire into the state of lasting peace.

Whether peacekeeping mechanism is established or not entirely depends on the U.S. stand and attitude.

The issues of removing war danger from the Korean Peninsula and preventing armed conflict between the north and the south can be solved fundamentally only when the U.S. drops its hostile policy towards the DPRK and replaces the armistice agreement with a peace agreement.

The establishment of peacekeeping mechanism only will be able to turn the relationship between the DPRK and the U.S., which are technically at the state of war, into peaceful one.

The U.S. should immediately make a courageous decision to opt for the establishment of new peacekeeping mechanism which will be helpful to removing the war danger from the Korean Peninsula and guaranteeing peace.

The U.S. is well advised to fulfill what it should do, far from playing a double game, and thus contribute to ensuring peace in the peninsula.