Pyongyang, September 5 (KCNA) -- A north-south Buddhist joint mass for praying for national reunification was held at the Pohyon Temple in Mt. Myohyang on Monday to mark the millennium of the wood engraving of 80 000 blocks of Complete Collection of Buddhist Scriptures.

Present there from the north side were Chairman Sim Sang Jin and other personages of the Central Committee of the Buddhist Federation of Korea, those of the Hyangsan County Committee of the Federation and priests and believers of the Temple and from the south side were Ri Ja Sung, chairman of the Buddhist Orders Council and chief of the Administrative Office of the Buddhist Jogye Order, priests, believers and other personages concerned.

A Buddhist ritual was held and speeches were made at the mass. Then a north-south Buddhist joint address was read out to pray for national reunification.

Speeches and address noted that to hold the joint mass at the Pohyon Temple in Mt. Myohyang, the site for praying for the good of the country, on the millennium of the wood engraving of 80 000 blocks of Complete Collection of Buddhist Scriptures is a meaningful Buddhist event as it reflects the desire and will of all the fellow countrymen to realize charity, equality and peace in accordance with sacred teachings of Buddha, and build a reunified country, an earthly paradise in the present world, where the idea of getting rid of pain and attaining happiness has come true.

All the Buddhists in the north and the south should protect, preserve and glorify well the 80 000 blocks of Complete Collection of Buddhist Scriptures, a precious cultural heritage of the nation and a book of Buddha's teachings, and faithfully protect and implement the historic June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration in Dharma-minded concord under the banner of "By our nation itself", they said.

For the present it is necessary to turn out in the practical actions to defuse the confrontation between the north and the south at an early date and actively push forward dialogue and cooperation, they stressed.