Present there were media persons in the city of Pyongyang and foreign correspondents.

Members of the North Side Committee for Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration and those of the north headquarters of the Pan-national Alliance for Korea's Reunification and the Pan-national Alliance of Students and Youth for Korea's Reunification were also present there as observers.

Rev. Han Sang Ryol in an address said that he came to realize that independence, democracy and reunification are the historic mission of our nation. He decided to come to Pyongyang as an envoy of reconciliation, peace and reunification while witnessing the anti-democracy, unpopular, anti-independence and anti-reunification moves perpetrated by the present regime, in particular, he added.

The publication of the June 15 joint declaration provided by the south-north summit in 2000 marked a great event in removing distrust and putting an end to the dark age of division and ushering in the bright era of reunification and peace full of trust, he noted.

It seemed to me that there was no need to fear about the outbreak of a war, and the new day of the reunification and peace would come sooner or later, if the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration were implemented to the letter, he said.

But dark clouds of a war are gathering to hang on this land, he said, accusing the Lee Myung Bak group of denying the June 15 joint declaration and committing anti-reunification and treacherous crimes by cutting off the inter-Korean relations.

Referring to the case of the sinking of warship "Cheonan", he noted that this case is no more than a fabrication jointly orchestrated by the U.S. and Lee Myung Bak. The U.S. tried to seize the initiative in south Korea through tightened alliance among south Korea, Japan and the U.S. while Lee tried to use it for winning in the "elections", he pointed out.

The south Korean people now wage a vigorous struggle for independence against the U.S. and for reunification of the country, he stressed.

At the end, he recited a poem "Now it's June 15" composed by himself.

Then he answered questions raised by journalists.

He said that he would go back to south Korea through Panmunjom on August 15 and till then he would visit every nook and corner of the northern half of Korea to meet compatriots. He would sing of the June 15 with them and make his efforts for preventing a war and defending peace, he declared.