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

This is a crafty and dangerous scheme that can be conceived only by those keen to escalate the confrontation with the DPRK and ignite a war of aggression against it.

Their plan to turn the five islands and waters off them into tourist destinations brings to light their ulterior aims because those islands are fraught with such tension that an armed conflict may break out again any moment.

In a word, they seek to cover up their bellicose nature and intensify their moves to launch a war against the DPRK under the signboard of "international tourism."

Troops of the north and the south stand in acute confrontation with those five islands in between. It is, therefore, a sinister scenario of the puppet warmongers to use those five islands and waters around them as theatres for kicking off armed provocations with ease and ignite a new war there.

War and tourism can never go together. Nevertheless, the puppet forces are keen to build international tourist resorts there. It is needless to say that through these projects they seek to conceal their preparations for a war with a guise of tourism and get the "northern limit line" and their dominium over the waters off the five islands publicly recognized. Also lurking behind their projects is a sinister aim to bring tourists there to use them as "human shields" in a bid to escape the Korean People's Army's retaliation against their military provocations.

There remains only such physical settlement as exchange of fire between the north and the south due to the group of traitors' hideous provocations. A war knows no mercy, and even tourist resorts can by no means be safe.