Kim Il Sung clarified the main principles of national reunification as the three principles when meeting the delegate of south Korea who came to Pyongyang to participate in the first round of the north-south high-ranking political talks on May 3, 1972.

Rodong Sinmun in an article says that the three principles became a reunification programme common to the nation as the north and the south issued the July 4 joint statement, affirming the above-said principles as the main principles for the solution to the issue of reunification and solemnly declaring them. The three principles are the cornerstone of national reunification as they clarified the fundamental stand and ways for solving the issue of national reunification by the Koreans themselves, the article says, and goes on:

The issue of national reunification, an internal affair of the nation, can be solved only by the strength and efforts of the Koreans.

In order to solve the issue of reunification by peaceful means in line with the wishes and interests of the nation, it is necessary to put a definite end to the foreign forces' moves for aggression and war.

The Korean nation can establish sovereignty throughout Korea and achieve peace and peaceful reunification only when the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces, the root cause of war, are driven out of south Korea.

The great unity of the nation alone can show a way out for the nation and guarantee its dignity and reunification and prosperity.

Minju Joson says that the Korean people will surely build a prosperous reunified country on the land of Korea by holding fast to the three principles hand in hand with all other fellow countrymen and dynamically waging a more organized and mass struggle for the implementation of the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration true to the Songun leadership of Kim Jong Il.