The official media of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Monday that the future reunification of the DPRK and South Korea must be based on the principle of national independence and rejection of any outside interference.
The official Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary that the Panmunjom Declaration, recently signed by DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, "has the idea of By Our Nation Itself and the principle of national independence as its core".
"To preserve the principle of national independence is vital to the destiny of the Korean nation and the prospect of the inter-Korean relations," the official daily of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea said.
Kim and Moon signed the joint declaration on April 27 in the truce village of Panmunjom, promising to work for complete denuclearization and permanent peace on the peninsula.
"National reunification is, in essence, the cause of reconnecting the blood vessel of the Korean nation which was severed into the north and the south by the outsiders," the daily said.
"The issue of national reunification can never be settled if one depends on outsiders, the chief architect of the Korean division and disturber of the reunification," it added.
The DPRK Sunday accused the United States of misleading the world by saying Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearization was the outcome of U.S.-led international sanctions.
A DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesperson also said Washington was deliberately provoking the DPRK by deploying more strategic assets in South Korea, despite the improvement in inter-Korean ties.
