It also arrested and detained the chief editor of "True Path to Be Followed by the Nation", the organ of the South Headquarters, on charges of "contempt of court" and "praise and encouragement". He strongly protested against the court's penalty.

The North Headquarters of Pomminryon in a statement on Thursday branded the action taken by the Lee Myung Bak group as a hideous act of inciting the confrontation with compatriots and a crime against reunification as it is intended to arrest the national movement for reunification and mercilessly violates even the elementary rights of human beings.

The puppet group's harsh suppression of leading members of the South Headquarters on charges of "enemy-benefiting activities" is nothing but its last-ditch efforts to completely stamp out the headquarters standing in the van of the actions for social democracy and the movement for reunification and thus weaken the forces of the reunification movement and prolong its remaining days, the statement said, and went on:

The group took this action at a time when it was kicking up a frantic reactionary burlesque such as campaign for "eliminating the forces following the north" in which the north is regarded not as compatriots but as "an enemy" and not as a partner for reunification but as a target of rejection. This more clearly shows what the group is seeking through this racket.

Lurking behind this is a sinister aim to direct the spearhead of fascist crackdown to the organizations and personages of the reunification movement including the South Headquarters of Pomminryon and create a terror-ridden atmosphere throughout society in a bid to realize its ambition to stay in power through the up-coming "presidential election."

The statement urged the Lee group to abolish the "Security Law", an evil law against human rights and reunification, immediately release the pro-reunification figures including the unreasonably detained members of the South Headquarters of Pomminryon and guarantee the freedom of activities for reunification.