At the conference the organizations accused the military authorities of contemplating staging naval firing drills on Paekryong Island and Yonphyong Island in the West Sea of Korea that day with various type artillery pieces, fighters, patrol ships and other weapons for preemptive attack involved.

This will escalate the military tension on the Korean Peninsula as it is an act of diametrically turning down the demand of the people for putting an end to confrontation and an early establishment of a special zone for peace and cooperation in the West Sea, they charged.

Recalling that the drills will be observed by officers of the U.S. Marines present in Okinawa who are staging joint military exercises with south Korea in Ryonchon, Kyonggi Province, in particular, the organizations noted that they cannot but entertain misgivings about the fact that the drills are pursuant to the provocative "local war scenario."

The ceaseless war maneuvers in the West Sea of Korea have turned it into tension-ridden waters, the organizations held, stressing that it is impossible to improve the inter-Korean relations unless the West Sea of Korea is turned into a sea of peace.

The organizations strongly urged the authorities to opt for settling the issue of inter-Korean relations in a peaceful way.