Rodong Sinmun Friday observes in a by-lined commentary in this regard:

There was no proper dialogue between the authorities of the north and the south already before the occurrence of "Cheonan" warship case and the Yonphyong Island Shelling incident. The inter-Korean relations have steadily deteriorated mainly because the Lee Myung Bak conservative regime came out with their policy toward the north called "no nukes, opening and 3 000 dollars" in denial of the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration.

After cooking up the above-said two cases, the puppet group put up "the north's dismantling of its nukes first" and its "apology" for the two controversial issues and "sincere switchover in its attitude" as groundless preconditions and are insisting that they cannot come out for dialogue unless they are met.

But had the U.S. and the south Korean authorities not pursued the reckless policy of confrontation with the DPRK and the said declarations been implemented, the above-said incidents would not have occurred. The two incidents, therefore, were not the reason why the inter-Korean relations deteriorated but they were its product.

Their reckless remarks urging the DPRK to "apologize" for the two incidents remind one of a thief crying "Stop the thief!"

The reality goes to prove that as long as the Lee Myung Bak conservative group is allowed to pursue the anti-reunification confrontation policy, it is impossible to mend the frozen inter-Korean relations and they will get uncontrollable as the days go by.

The south Korean conservative authorities would be well advised to unconditionally roll back their policy of confrontation with the DPRK.