The publication of the declaration marked an event of great significance as it replaced the history of distrust and confrontation by a history of reconciliation, unity, peace and reunification.

Had this been given steady continuity, the day of reunification would have come earlier.

Since the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors came to power in south Korea, however, the north-south relations have been seriously deteriorated. Only an atmosphere of confrontation with fellow countrymen and the danger of war are prevailing in the Korean Peninsula.

After declaring sycophancy towards the U.S. and dependence upon foreign forces as the top priority task of its foreign policy, the group of traitors adopted "no nukes, opening and 3 000 dollars" contrary to the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration as a "policy towards the north," bedeviling the inter-Korean relations though they had favorably developed after the publication of the June 15 joint declaration.

The group obstructed every north-south dialogue and inter-Korean cooperation and suspended them including its actions to bar meetings of people of all social strata from taking place though they were regularly held after the publication of the joint declaration. These are the facts known to everybody.

This year, too, the June 15 All-Korea Joint Committee decided to hold a reunification event common to the Korean nation with splendor in Mt. Kumgang resort on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the joint declaration but the south Korean authorities are still insisting on the stand of not allowing the event.

Worse still, the authorities are putting all sorts of political pressure upon the delegation of the South Side Committee for Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration that took part in the working contact among the north, the south and overseas sides in order to defuse the confrontation and promote the event.

The south Korean authorities' unjust disallowance of the contact and vicious moves for confrontation with fellow countrymen compelled the representatives of the three sides to separately hold the event in their regions under the situation where they are unable to meet at one place.

The group of traitors is going reckless in its moves to turn the situation before the "presidential election" favorable for it by agitating frantic confrontation through a whirlwind of the campaign for eliminating the "forces following the north" and the "pro-communist elements."

The group is escalating its moves for a war against fellow countrymen after raising again the "Cheonan" warship sinking case, a fiction. It went the lengths of unhesitatingly perpetrating such unpardonable political and military provocations as hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK.

As proven by the developments since the publication of the joint declaration, there will be a way out for the nation and it can achieve reunification, peace and prosperity if it upholds and implements the joint declaration but if it is abandoned, it would bring nothing but greater misfortune and sufferings and a war disaster. Only when the "government" of traitors is overthrown, is it possible to avert a war and preserve peace and achieve national reunification. This is the conclusion drawn on the basis of the situation of the north-south relations.

All Koreans should wage a more vigorous struggle to bring down the Lee "government."