The statement said:

The north and the south of Korea which had been in the relationship of antagonism and confrontation for more than half a century published the joint declaration, opening an epochal phase of reconciliation, cooperation and reunification. This would be unthinkable without the patriotic efforts of Kim Jong Il, chairman of the National Defence Commission.

Kim Jong Il is a lodestar of Korea's reunification as he ushered in the June 15 era of reunification with his Songun politics and led the implementation of the joint declaration with his energetic leadership.

The U.S. and the south Korean anti-reunification forces have disturbed every effort to implement the joint declaration, challenging it.

But Kim Jong Il took positive steps on his own initiative to ensure that the joint declaration was sincerely implemented.

He foiled such ceaseless provocations of the U.S. imperialists as blocking cooperation and exchange between the north and the south and driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to a touch-and-go situation and such anti-reunification policy of the Lee Myung Bak group as the north-south confrontation policy, zealously pursuant to them, by enforcing original effective Songun politics.

We are confident that the Korean people's struggle to achieve the independent and peaceful reunification of the country in the idea of "By our nation itself", the basic spirit of the joint declaration, is sure to triumph and reiterate our invariable support to this struggle.