The delegation of the north side was about to leave Pyongyang when it was informed by the south side that its vice-minister of Unification, not the minister of Unification, would be the chief delegate of the south side to the talks, the statement said, and went on:

The south side insisted on the ministerial-level talks from the beginning and confirmed more than once its intention to send the minister of Unification. But right before the start of the talks, it downgraded the level of the chief delegate. This is the height of discourtesy and disrespect unprecedented in the history of the north-south dialogue.

It, referring to the head of the delegation of the north side, made such coarse words as "figure hardly recognizable", "abnormal practice" and "incongruity of common sense and international standard".

This provocation barred the talks from being opened and our delegation was compelled to cancel its trip to Seoul.

The south side demanded the director of the United Front Department head the delegation as he is counterpart of the minister of Unification of the south side, a revelation of its ignorance of the social system in the DPRK.

Never has there been such a precedent in which a secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea officially took part in the talks between the authorities in the decades-long history of the north-south dialogue.

As for the agenda of the talks, the south side tried hard not to specify the joint commemoration of the anniversaries of the June 15 joint declaration and the July 4 joint statement and NGOs' visits and contacts and cooperation even though it said that it affirmatively accepted the special statement issued by the CPRK spokesman on June 6. It even tried to make the draft agreement ambiguous by deleting such expressions as "normalization" and "resumption" regarding the Kaesong Industrial Zone and tour of Mt. Kumgang resort.

It was due to such vicious obstructions and deliberate disruption of the south side that the working contact lasted 16 hours and barely came to an end after three o'clock in the following morning even though an agreement could be reached in just one or two hours. So, the agreed document failed to take the form of full agreement but the form of incomplete press release.

This fully proves that the south side had no intent to hold dialogue from the beginning and that it only sought to create an obstacle to the talks, delay and torpedo them after reluctantly taking part in the talks, far from solving issues at the negotiating table.

In the past we sent the first vice director of the Secretariat of the CPRK in the capacity of the Cabinet chief councilor as the head of the north-south ministerial talks and the vice director of the CPRK Secretariat always dealt with the vice-minister of Unification of south Korea.

This time we let the director of the CPRK Secretariat head our delegation instead of the first vice director in consideration of the face of the authorities of the south side.

Nevertheless, the south side claimed that the head of our delegation is not on a par with the head of its delegation. This is a revelation of its ignorance. This cannot be construed otherwise than a deliberate act to make the talks abortive.

The problem raised this time is not a simple issue related to the level of the head of the delegation to the talks but a manifestation of its sinister intention to make the talks between authorities abortive as it found it hard to realize its scenario for abusing the talks for the purpose of confrontation as intended by it

The recent impolite and immoral provocative behavior of the puppet group made us think once again whether it will be possible either to properly discuss matters or improve the inter-Korean relations even if the talks between authorities are opened in the future.

The puppet conservative group would be seriously mistaken if it calculates it can gain something by advocating "confrontation accompanied by dialogue" dating back to the outdated "yusin" era or sticking to "the theory of adhering to principle" touted by traitor Lee Myung Bak and it is, therefore, fated to meet the same miserable end as that of its predecessors.

We have nothing to expect from the talks between authorities of the north and the south.