The joint New Year editorial of Rodong Sinmun, Joson Inmingun and Chongnyon Jonwi, leading newspapers of the DPRK, put up the slogan "Let all Koreans in the north, south and abroad join efforts and bring a new phase of independent reunification".

The DPRK government, political parties and organizations discussed important issues of tiding over the present difficulties and opening a new phase of peace and reunification and released a joint statement on January 5.

At present, nothing is more vital task than national reunification for the Korean nation.

It is several decades since the demise of the Cold War era. But the Koreans are still subject to misery, pain and disgrace as the only divided nation in the world though they had lived as a homogeneous nation for thousands of years in one and the same territory.

They are undergoing ever-increasing tragedy resulting from the division of the nation and territory and the distrust between compatriots is getting deeper.

This is a tragedy for the Korean nation and has a very baneful impact on the peace and stability in East Asia.

As shown by the developments on the Korean Peninsula last year, it is impossible to wipe out the distrust and misunderstanding between the north and the south and they can never be free from military clashes and disasters as long as the confrontation persists between them.

The north and the south have a good precedent in which they smoothly settled problems through dialogues and negotiations. They also have good principles and declarations already adopted.

Acting upon them, they made a steady grand march for achieving reunification for reconciliation and unity under the banner of "By our nation itself." This culminated in great successes in the development of the nation's reunification movement.

However, all the achievements made in the relations between the north and the south were brought to naught and the situation reached the brink of war over the last three years.

The relations between the north and the south have been put on the verge of collapse and the confrontation between them has become so acute that bullet-and shell-firing is exchanged between compatriots.

The present grave situation indicates that no Korean can remain a passive onlooker to this and if this is allowed to go on, the north and the south can never escape a serious disaster.

It is impossible to settle the issue of the relations between the north and the south by way of confrontation as it will only lead to armed clash and war.

Those who are concerned about the destiny of the nation should meet and negotiate to dispel misunderstanding, letting bygones be bygones from the viewpoint of great national unity, irrespective of party affiliation, political view and religious faith no matter who he or she is. The north and the south will find everything settled once they meet.

They should make the next decade of the 21st century one of hope to witness the end of the tragedy of the nation, one of reunification and prosperity.