The whole world is heading for peace and stability but it is only the Korean Peninsula where the military tension persists amid a vicious cycle of antagonism and jealousy, confrontation and clash. The north-south relations are in the worst phase in the history of division.

Koreans, be they in the north and the south, in a political circle or the military, should feel responsibility for the situation quite contrary to the aspiration of the nation and the demand of the times.

It is the duty and mission of an army to protect its country and nation from foreign forces' aggression and interference.

Aware of this mission, the minister of the People's Armed Forces of the DPRK National Defence Commission Thursday sent the following open message to the minister of Defense of south Korea in connection with the opening of the north-south high-level military talks to defuse the tension on the peninsula:

The important proposal for terminating the phase of acute confrontation through wide-ranging dialogue and negotiations is arousing great support and sympathy at home and abroad.

It is the unshakable will of the Korean People's Army to fulfill its due mission and duty as an army of the Korean nation to bring about a new phase of detente on the Korean Peninsula and the improvement of the north-south relations for the purpose of carving out a rosy future of independent reunification and peace and prosperity, without being subject to the past.

As all the items which the south side would like to put on the agenda of the north-south authorities talks are of military nature related to the military authorities of both sides, the north side has a firm stand that high-level military talks should be opened to handle all the pending military issues including those matters and find solutions to them at the talks.

The message proposed adopting "On clarifying a view on the 'Cheonan' Case and Yonphyong Island Shelling and defusing military tension on the Korean Peninsula" as the agenda of the talks. It also proposed opening the talks in a place both sides deem convenient in the first half of February to be agreed upon and holding preliminary talks in late January for discussing technical matters related to the opening of the full-dress talks and other specific matters.