Rodong Sinmun on Wednesday says this in a bylined article.

It goes on:

To escalate confrontation with fellow countrymen is an act of treachery as it runs counter to the unanimous desire of all the fellow countrymen for the national unity and reunification.

It presents itself as an urgent demand of the times to achieve the national reunification through the great national unity.

It is the only way for paving a wide avenue for national reunification by promoting national reconciliation and unity to develop dialogue and cooperation between the north and the south of Korea.

The Korean nation has remained divided for more than half a century due to foreign forces.

In order to terminate this division the north and the south of Korea should achieve unity and actively promote dialogue and cooperation on the basis of common points of the nation and thus head for reunification.

To pursue confrontation with fellow countrymen while rejecting the improved inter-Korean relations amounts to a blatant challenge to national reconciliation, unity and reunification.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula which had developed in the direction of detente and peace after the publication of the June 15 joint declaration has rapidly been strained due to the Lee Myung Bak regime's policy of confrontation with fellow countrymen.

Such confrontation will only lead to a war. This is clearly proved by the north-south relations in the past five years characterized by extreme tension.

The Korean nation should no longer remain a passive onlooker to the inter-Korean ties stuck in the mire of confrontation.

It will have a rosy prospect only when the inter-Korean confrontation is brought to an end and fresh dynamism injected into the trend of the June 15 era of reunification.