It warmly hailed the proposal made in the joint statement and urged the south Korean authorities to respond to it.

Their attitude toward this proposal will be a criterion showing whether they want peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and national reunification or not, said the statement.

The Party will as ever consistently support the Korean people in the efforts to protect the sovereignty and dignity of the country and achieve national reunification, it said.

It called upon all the progressive political parties and people of the world to actively support the DPRK's proposal.

That day the Communist Party of India, too, released a similar statement.