The people in the north and all other fellow countrymen are significantly greeting the New Year with immense pride and self-esteem and joy as the greatest event in the nation's history spanning five thousand years.

Upon listening to the historic New Year Address made by the dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un, all the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad are dynamically turning out in the great drive for building a reunified thriving nation in sky-high spirit and full of hope and conviction of national reunification.

However, the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors in south Korea is frantically kicking up a racket for confrontation with compatriots and a war from the outset of the new year, touching off astonishment and resentment among the public at home and abroad.

Lee, puppet Defense Minister Kim Kwan Jin, Unification Minister Ryu U Ik and other confrontation maniacs more dead than alive are going into hysteria, letting loose a spate of malignant outbursts crying out for defending "the northern limit line", "the north may perpetrate provocations based on the mode of striking the west while making noise in the east" and "the north made a bad choice". Meanwhile, they are getting frantic with such maneuvers for invading the north as live shell firing drill with tanks and armored cars involved, calling for "punishment" of someone in the western and eastern sectors of the front.

They, at the same time, hurled human scum into the operation to scatter leaflets.

Bells rang and fireworks were displayed in the sky above Pyongyang to greet the New Year and songs of happiness, glory and reunification reverberated far and wide whereas south Korea is disturbed by gunfire made by saber-rattling targeted against compatriots. What a striking contrast between the two developments.

The confrontation racket of the Lee group is a blatant challenge to the aspiration of all the fellow countrymen desirous of peace and reunification and unpardonable grave provocation to the sincere call of the DPRK for putting an end to the north-south confrontation and bringing about a new phase of national reunification by the concerted efforts of the nation.

The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea joins all Koreans in bitterly condemning the Lee group, the worst warmongers, for bringing the dark clouds of war.

The Lee group, not content with the hideous crimes committed against the nation for the past five years, is making desperate efforts to ignite a war at any cost before meeting its miserable end after driving the inter-Korean relations into a total collapse.

The provocative moves stepped up by the Lee group are intended to push the inter-Korean ties to an extremely serious phase in a bid to prod the next regime into sticking to the confrontation policy.

History knows not a few rascals, tyrants and warmongers but it records no such vicious and ignorant group of confrontation maniacs as the Lee group.

That was why the group became the target of criticism and derision, being labeled the dirtiest group of rats which must be eradicated right after their appearance.

The Lee group was so forsaken by the people's mind-set and the public opinion of south Korea that it was sidelined even by its own clan and they kept him at distance in the election.

No one can predict what serious disaster the hysteria of such group will bring to the nation.

The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea solemnly clarifies the following stance in view of the deep concern of all the Koreans about the grave situation prevailing in Korea from the outset of the new year and the serious lesson taught during the past five years of its office:

First. It is necessary to eradicate the root cause of misfortune to prevent national disaster.

The south Korean people have been seized with constant war horror and uneasiness and the Korean nation has never been in peace due to the Lee group of rats which knows nothing but confrontation with fellow countrymen and saber-rattling.

A group of rats will only bring nothing but disaster and misfortune.

Such rats must be eradicated in good time.

Only when such group of rats, refuses and dregs of history, is completely eradicated, can the south Korean people escape disaster and live a secure life.

Second. Resorting to the confrontation with fellow countrymen makes it impossible to prevent a war.

To improve the inter-Korean relations and realize the national reconciliation, unity and reunification as early as possible is the unanimous desire and wishes of the Korean nation and an irresistible trend of the times.

The group made no scruple of committing such most hideous evils, shocking the world people, as the group was so blinded by confrontation in the last five years of its office that it was unable to face up to the trend of the times.

Consequently, a touch-and-go situation prevailed on the Korean Peninsula and such tragedy as skirmish occurred.

The confrontation with fellow countrymen is bound to lead to a war.

There is a limit to the DPRK's patience and the resolution of the army of the DPRK to annihilate enemies is running high.

The anti-reunification forces in south Korea should act with discretion, properly understanding the strong will of our revolutionary armed forces clarified in the statement issued by a spokesman for the DPRK National Defence Commission.

Third. In order to prevent disaster of the nation all the compatriots should unite under the banner of "By our nation itself" and come out in the struggle against the anti-reunification confrontation forces.

Our compatriots keenly realized that peace, reunification and prosperity are guaranteed by the unity of the nation while carving out the proud June 15 era of reunification.

The idea of "By our nation itself" which calls for sharing happiness and wellbeing in a reunified country and confrontation with fellow countrymen bringing a great disaster of the nation can never go together.

All Koreans should open a new phase of national reunification in unity.

They should subordinate and orient everything to the great cause of national reunification from the standpoint of giving priority to the nation, attaching importance to the nation and achieving national unity and decisively check and foil the war moves of the anti-reunification confrontation forces.

Those seeking confrontation and war are bound to meet destruction.

We will watch the future attitude of the south Korean authorities.