To Open the Gates of National Reunification

“Let all the compatriots open the gates of national reunification full of fresh confidence!”–this is one of the slogans set forth in the joint editorial published by Rodong Sinmun and other leading newspapers of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, seeing in the new year 2012.

Last year the reunification movement of the Korean nation suffered harsh trials and difficulties, owing to the confrontation manoeuvres of the south Korean authorities against the north.

A joint statement of the DPRK government, political parties and social organizations was issued, which proposed to hold wide-ranging dialogues and negotiations with the south Korean counterparts, including its authorities, and the DPRK made consistent efforts to realize the cause of national reunification. However, the south Korean authorities, turning a deaf ear to sincere efforts made by the north, responded to it by further intensifying war manoeuvres against the fellow countrymen in the north in collaboration with foreign forces. They even committed the acts contrary to morality by violently suppressing the south Korean people who were offering condolence on the sudden demise of Kim Jong Il, father of the nation, who had rendered immortal services to implementing the cause of national reunification.

It was entirely thanks to persevering efforts, peace-loving and reunification-oriented, made by the north that prevented possible armed conflict on the Korean peninsula from happening in the prevailing acute situation.

Greeting the new year, the north again called on all the Korean compatriots to unite and make a breakthrough for independent reunification.

The joint editorial stressed the need to maintain in a thoroughgoing way the stand of national independence and of putting the nation above anything else.

The stand of national independence is the basic ideal and the first and foremost principle for Korean reunification.

Through the miraculous events made in the inter-Korean relations after the publication of the June 15 Joint Declaration adopted in 2000, the entire Korean nation reaffirmed the conviction that they could achieve the country’s reunification without fail if they maintain the thoroughgoing stand of national independence under the ideal of By Our Nation Itself, basic spirit of the June 15 Joint Declaration.

The year 2012 marks the fifth anniversary of the publication of the October 4 Declaration, the action programme of the June 15 Joint Declaration.

On October 4, 2007, the leaders of the north and south Korea met in Pyongyang, and adopted the Declaration for the Development of North-South Relations, Peace and Prosperity, the October 4 Declaration.

The declaration carried the agreements on important issues arising in promoting the inter-Korean relations, such as upholding and positively implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration, fully converting the inter-Korean relations into those of mutual respect and trust, achieving détente and ensuring the permanent peace on the Korean peninsula, promoting balanced national economy and co-prosperity of the Korean nation, and so on. With the adoption of the October 4 Declaration, all the Korean people were filled with greater confidence in and optimism about national reunification. If this declaration had been successfully implemented, the Korean peninsula would not have been in such acute situation as it is now and the reunification might have already been achieved.

The south Korean authorities should not negate the two declarations, but establish a correct viewpoint and attitude towards their thorough implementation.

The DPRK’s joint editorial pointed out that the national reconciliation and unity is the precondition and guarantee for national reunification.

The Korean nation is a homogeneous one rare to be found in the world that has lived on the same territory, with the same blood, language and culture, sharing a time-honoured history of 5 000 years. However great the differences in ideologies and systems existing in the north and south of Korea may be, they cannot eclipse the national community that has been formed and consolidated in the course of a long historical period.

In order to achieve national reunification, the north and south should give top priority to the common interests of the nation and subordinate everything to them. Confrontation between fellow countrymen that is driving the inter-Korean relations towards catastrophe should never be allowed. In particular the acts that disgrace the dignity and foster distrust and antagonism cannot be tolerated in the slightest.

The joint editorial also stressed that the prevailing situation urgently demands that the war moves of the bellicose forces at home and abroad be checked and frustrated.

Last year the ruling forces in south Korea, in collaboration with the United States, launched the north-targeted joint military exercises known as Key Resolve, Foal Eagle and Ulji Freedom Guardian.

Last November they even staged large-scale war rehearsals on five islands and the surrounding waters in the West Sea of Korea.

A new war on the Korean peninsula means a nuclear war beyond imagination, and it will plunge not only the Korean nation but the neighbouring countries and the whole mankind into a nuclear holocaust.

Herein lies one of the reasons why the international community should not remain indifferent towards the achieving of peace and reunification of Korea. The south Korean authorities should immediately put an end to arms buildup and reckless war exercises against the north in collusion with the US. The US troops, the main obstacle to reunification of Korea and peace on the Korean peninsula, should be pulled out from south Korea without delay.

The international community sincerely hopes that Korea will bring about radical changes in the reunification movement this year and thus open the gates of national reunification.