The statement recalled that the north suggested the south and the north and overseas sides to jointly open the events marking the 13th anniversary of the June 15 joint declaration, adding:

The north in a statement issued by a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea on May 28 clarified the will to allow not only businessmen in the Kaesong Industrial Zone but those concerned of its management committee to visit it and discuss the issue of normalizing its operation.

But the south Korean regime turned down such proposals of the north, claiming that the talks between the authorities should precede, the statement said, terming it a total betrayal of the ardent desire of people of all social standings for the solution to the issue of the KIZ and the successful holding of the above-said joint events.

Their assertion is nothing but an anachronistic insistence on a single channel that neither non-governmental dialogue nor cooperation undertaking are possible without dialogue between the authorities, the statement charged, and went on:

It is a serous problem to insist on the stand of excluding NGOs and it is also a problem to stick to the biased approach that there can be no dialogue except the discussion of the issue of carrying raw and other materials and finished goods out of the KIZ.

If the present regime insists in such attitude, it is impossible to settle any issue, it warned.