South Korea should exercise restraint in its acts, the editorial urged, and went on:

The government is describing the military exercises as "annual drills of defensive nature" but sources confirm that they put a greater emphasis on coping with the "contingency in the north."

What matters is that south Korea is provoking the north by further intensifying its psychological warfare against it.

The army has so far scattered millions of leaflets critical of the system in the north since last year while distributing daily necessities since early in February.

Even some lawmakers from the "Grand National Party" took direct part in scattering leaflets.

Not content with this, some legislators from the party and conservative media are crying out for south Korea's nuclear development.

This debate itself leads to the escalation of the tension on the peninsula.

Lurking behind this is an ulterior design to insist on the theory of "the collapse of the north" to the last and seek the rally of the conservative forces irrespective of the situation on the peninsula.