One month has passed since the inglorious incident in which a south Korean citizen had met a death after his illegal intrusion into the waters of the West Sea of Korea.

In the period, we informed the results of investigation into the whole course of the incident immediately to the south side, mirroring the intention of our supreme leadership in order to prevent the north-south trust and respect from further crumbling owing to the sudden inglorious unwanted incident in the waters of the West Sea of Korea. We also conveyed our regret over the incident that happened in the waters under the control of our side.

Since then we have tried our best to retrieve the dead body from the waters of the West Sea and return it to his family, but to no avail, to our regret.

We are regretful for this and have decided to take sustained necessary measures in the future, too, in the relevant field.

But in the south side unsavory acts of insulting our good faith and aiming at maximizing distrust and confrontation between the fellow countrymen have become so worse as to go beyond the tolerant limit and to arouse the concerns and resentment of our army and people.

It is not that we have nothing to say to the south side over the incident.

To look back on the past, history records a number of examples in which unimportant incidents in the border areas spilled over into fierce exchange of fire even between countries that had been in peaceful relations.

The north and the south are now technically at war, not in peace, and the place of the incident is the hotspot in the West Sea where the two sides are standing in acute confrontation.

At that time we did not know out of what intention the south Korean citizen illegally intruded into the waters under the control of our side and that person did not immediately respond to our interception. Therefore, it is certain how our soldier on his routine duty could have reacted, which is clear even to the south side.

But as the unexpected incident happened in the waters where our sovereignty is exercised, we conveyed our feelings of regret to the south side, taking into consideration the present state of the north-south relations, and also exercised maximum patience to face the slandering of all descriptions from the south side after the incident.

But the conservative forces of south Korea including the "People Power Party" with the idea of confrontation with the fellow countrymen steeped into the marrows of their bones are working with bloodshot eyes to slander their fellow countrymen in the north under such rhetoric as "atrocity" and "human rights abuses". They are also raising a hue and cry, going imprudent, in order to make the recent incident an opportunity for attaining their dirty political purposes.

They are even calling for bringing the issue to the international arena including the UN, while faulting someone's "human rights issue".

From the beginning, they have been set to foster distrust and hostility toward the fellow countrymen and to find out and snowball the excuses for blaming the present authorities' incompetence, without any endeavors for reasonable judgment of the whole story of the incident and proper solution.

To describe good faith from the fellow countrymen as a knife seems to be an inveterate bad habit of the conservative forces.

We have been fed up with the frenzy of the conservative forces prolonging their remaining days with the confrontation with the fellow countrymen, but we can not but take account of this, now that deliberate and conspiratorial ill story is constantly around over the incident.

As we already mentioned in our notification to the south side, we had told them clearly enough that our soldier could not but take self-defensive measure as he judged that the south Korean citizen who had made an illegal intrusion into the waters of the West Sea of Korea under the control of our side was about to flee, not responding to interception.

Had the south side made an advance notification to us that its citizen was coming to our waters?

As for the "defamation of the dead body" over which the conservative forces are ranting and raving, its truth has already been revealed by the south Korean military.

Explicitly speaking, the recent inglorious incident in the waters of the West Sea of Korea was the result of improper control of the citizen by the south side in the sensitive hotspot are at a time when there are tension and danger due to the vicious virus sweeping the whole of south Korea. Therefore, the blame for the incident first rests with the south side. This is our invariable stand.

It stands to reason to try to find one's own mistake, before faulting others.

The conservative forces allegedly valuing "human rights" with great concern for it kept mum about the recent horrible death of its own citizen by a U.S. armored vehicle, and also about the opening of indiscriminate machine gun fire into another citizen of its side when he was swimming across a river in the area along the Military Demarcation Line to enter the DPRK that killed him. Does it have face to talk about someone's "human rights".

We are clearly aware that the recent imprudent act of the conservative forces is designed to make the unprecedented wind of anti-DPRK confrontation and of "exposing of pro-communists" run high in the south Korean society with the incident as a momentum, not because they are truly concerned for the lives and rights of people.

No false misrepresentation and smear campaign of the conservative forces can ever be allowed to tarnish the profile of the dignified DPRK in which it has become a state custom to respect, love and value people despite whatever vicissitudes.

Clouds of uneasiness and discord still hang heavily low in the relations between the north and the south due to those mad men crazy about escalating confrontation with the fellow countrymen and political strife and about causing social chaos being indifferent to the daily deterioration of people's livelihood and spread of pandemic, and being greedy for "power". This is a stark reality today.

The present serious situation, in which all sorts of slandering against the DPRK has gone beyond the tolerance limit and there are all indications to resort to dangerous moves to lead this incident to international anti-DPRK smear campaign in south Korea, has resulted in affecting the limits of magnanimity and good faith which we have so far maintained.

We do not want to see the repetition of any unpleasant precedents in which accidental incidents led the north-south relations to a catastrophe. This is our stand.

We issue an advance warning to the south Korean conservative forces that their thoughtless confrontational act may invite greater misfortune.