According to it, north-south non-governmental cooperation was brought to naught overnight after the Lee Myung Bak conservative group seized power.

No sooner had the Lee group come to power than it started to make an overall inspection of NGOs under the pretext of grasping the situation and reviewing the work. It took steps for restriction while circulating the list of standards.

It bound NGOs hand and foot, talking about "report system", "registration system" and the like. It also set up legal and institutional machines one after another to deliberately curb cooperation.

It secured from south Korean NGOs visiting the north written assurances that "they shall refrain from words and deeds sympathizing with the unilateral political propaganda and assertion of the north". It set in motion its stooges under the veil of technicians and supporters to thoroughly watch and control every movement of visitors to the north.

It worked out delicate standards and complicated procedures and raised sundry conditions so as to prevent NGOs from properly bringing in and out goods and conducting cooperation as planned.

It worked hard to totally bar cooperation and exchange under the pretext of the DPRK's legitimate satellite launch and self-defensive nuclear test in 2009.

Its moves to totally destroy north-south NGO cooperation reached the height with the "Cheonan" warship sink case as an occasion. It stretched its tentacles of the above-said obstructions to the work of the Kaesong Industrial Zone.

It drastically decreased even the petty amount of funds which were paid to south Korean NGOs and squandered fabulous amounts of funds for intensifying the anti-DPRK moves instead. It was set to use even the simple humanitarian cooperation of NGOs for meeting its sinister aim of destabilizing the north.

Very grave are the consequences entailed by the treacherous moves of the Lee group against the north-south NGO cooperation.

According to the data reported by south Korean media, among the economic loss suffered by south Korean NGO enterprises which took part in the north-south NGO cooperation over one and a half years after the "May 24 step", the direct loss caused by the curtailment of operations in the Kaesong Industrial Zone, north-south barter, suspension of bonded processing, etc. amounted to 2.75 billion U.S. dollars while the indirect loss reached over 7.48 billion U.S. dollars.

The loss Hyundai Group suffered for nearly three years after the suspension of tour of Mt. Kumgang amounted to as much as over 480 billion won (in south Korean currency).

The suspension of north-south cooperation brought price hike, foreign capital outflow and massive bankruptcy of enterprises, removing nearly 300 000 jobs and causing more than 5 972 billion won worth loss (in south Korean currency).

The Lee group is talking about "expansion of NGO cooperation" and "approval" to give impression that it is interested in the north-south cooperation but with no trick can it cover up the unpardonable derailment of the north-south NGO cooperation.