The statement which was agreed upon and announced by the north and the south for the first time since Korea's division is a precious one which demonstrated the will of the nation for reunification, the commentary said, and noted:

But the Park Chung-hee regime turned down the statement which carried the contents of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity and opted for remaining in office long by cooking up the "yusin constitution".

The south Korean authorities are not accepting the special proposal of the north which reflects the spirit of the July 4 joint statement and the spirit of By Our Nation Itself. The present chief executive visited Pyongyang in 2002 and promised to pool efforts in order to implement the joint statement and achieve the peaceful reunification of the country.

The south Korean authorities should respect the spirit of the joint statement and opt for implementing the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration.