Pyongyang, December 10 (KCNA) -- Ri Tong Je, chairman of the Association of Koreans in Japan for Peaceful Reunification, made public a statement on Dec. 8 to condemn the south Korean puppet authorities for having imposed heavy penalty on Rev. Han Sang Ryol.

The statement noted that the Supreme Court of south Korea sentenced Han, who visited the DPRK on the 10th anniversary of the publication of the June 15 joint declaration last year, to three years in jail and three years of suspension of qualification by invoking the "National Security Law", an anti-reunification evil law.

All activities Han did in the DPRK were a patriotic deed conducive to removing a stumbling block to the north-south relations and national reunification and keeping the trend of the June 15 era of reunification, it said.

The statement vehemently slashed at the anti-national and anti-reunification crime of the south Korean conservative authorities who again totally denied the June 15 joint declaration, a reunification program common to the nation, by imposing such harsh punishment on Rev. Han.

The south Korean authorities should stop the suppression of people calling for implementation of the inter-Korean declarations, set free Han unconditionally and totally abrogate the NSL, the fascist law obstructive to independence, democracy and reunification, it urged.