Pyongyang, December 24 (KCNA) -- The Press Headquarters of the South Side Committee for Implementing June 15 Joint Declaration Wednesday sent a message of condolences to the Press Panel of the North Side Committee on the demise of leader Kim Jong Il.

In the message the organization said it can hardly repress regret and sorrow upon the sad news that Chairman of the National Defence Commission Kim Jong Il passed away.

He deeply impressed the compatriots in the south and the north and abroad and the world people by providing the adoption of the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration, it said.

Those declarations, a milestone for the independent and peaceful reunification of the country, would shine long in the nation's history, it stressed.

It expressed sympathy with the compatriots in the north in grief at the loss of their leader, calling on the south and the north to overcome the sorrow and pain and put energies into the country's reunification.