The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Wednesday that a joint declaration issued a decade ago with South Korea on realizing peaceful national reunification "clarified the practical ways for building trust between the north and the south."
The Oct. 4 joint declaration was the outcome of a 2007 inter-Korean summit between late DPRK leader Kim Jong Il, father of current leader Kim Jong Un, and late South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.
"Had the Oct. 4 declaration been properly carried out, the achievements of the national unity which the fellow countrymen made through exchange of visits would have helped to open up wide the future of peace and prosperity and the Korean nation would have already entered the gateway to the country's reunification," the DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency quoted a statement from the North Side, South Side and Overseas Side Committees for Implementing June 15 Joint Declaration, a DPRK-sponsored body for inter-Korean relations, as saying.
The June 15 Joint Declaration was signed by Kim Jong Il and then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung 17 years ago in Pyongyang during the first summit of the two leaders from both sides of the Korean Peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean War which led to the division of the nation.
Relations remain tense between the DPRK and South Korea due to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs and joint drills between U.S. and South Korean troops.
"The north-south relations were totally cut off and the military tension on the Korean Peninsula has been ramped up due to outsiders' moves for realizing their hegemony by escalating tension on the peninsula," said the statement.
"It is the most important task facing the nation to remove the war system which inflicted pains on the fellow countrymen while being in force for decades, and to build lasting peace mechanism," it said.
