On Saturday the south Korean warmongers opened fire into a patrol boat of the DPRK on its routine patrol duty in the waters of the north side in the West Sea, claiming that the boat came close to the "northern limited line" and talking about "warning".

The shelling that was committed in broad daylight was a deliberate provocation to spark off a military conflict in the tension-charged waters of the West Sea of Korea and again escalate the tension on the Korean Peninsula.

We can not but take a serious note of the fact that the provocation was timed to coincide with the frantic anti-DPRK war exercises like combined naval drill and Hoguk drill which the south Korean warmongers are staging with a U.S. nuclear carrier involved while crying out for "resolute punishment" and "conditioned counteraction" with military brass hats including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff touring the forefront areas including Yonphyong Islet.

Now underway at Mt. Kumgang Resort is the reunion of separated families and relatives amid great concern and interest at home and abroad thanks to the positive and sincere efforts made by the DPRK.

Seeing them reunite with each other, sharing warm kindred feelings after so many years of separation, all the fellow countrymen keenly feel the urgency of national reunification and hope that the atmosphere of reconciliation will bear a rich fruit.

The recent military provocation of the south Korean military gangsters was a dangerous act aimed to chill the hard-won atmosphere of improving the relations and totally derail the process for implementing the north-south agreement.

The recent case clearly proves who is to blame for harassing peace, escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula and bedeviling the north-south relations.

There will be only a war disaster, far from the improvement of the north-south relations, as long as the south Korean military warmongers go reckless, going against the nation's desire and wish for national reunification.

No matter how dear peace is to us, we will never pardon provokers going reckless, being seized by confrontation and war, but mercilessly punish them.

If the south Korean military warmongers persist in reckless military provocations, not dropping the bad habit of cooking up a shocking incident and inciting confrontation, they will spark off an unpredictable armed conflict and the north-south relations will again reach the extremes as what they were before the August agreement.

The south Korean authorities will be wholly accountable for it.

The south Korean warmongers had better act with discretion, clearly understanding it will get nothing through its military provocation against the fellow countrymen.