The statement recalled that the Seoul High Court on June 13 sentenced Choe Tong Jin, director of the editorial board of the South Headquarters of Pomminryon, to the same two years in prison as it did at the first trial.

The heavy penalties on those who have worked with the love for the nation and the patriotic will for reunification show that the despicable moves of the anti-reunification forces for confrontation with fellow countrymen have already gone beyond tolerance limit, it held.

It recalled that the minister of Justice shortly ago blared that "now the situation is more dangerous than during the Cold War period and it is necessary to deter the freedom of expression", and the "Saenuri Party" is mulling cracking down on the organizations for the reunification movement by terming them "enemy-benefiting organizations" and "criminal organizations".

It said that the whirlwind of indiscriminative suppression of those organizations and progressive figures under the present regime is ascribable to the authorities' policy for confrontation with fellow countrymen.

History proves that violence and suppression can never dampen the desire of the nation for independent reunification, the statement stressed.