The great lodestar of the independent reunification

　

Our people's reunification movement to relink the blood vessels of the nation under the banner of the June 15 joint declaration is dynamically advancing.

The misunderstanding and mistrust, antagonism and discord, protracted for more than a half a century in the divided north and south of the nation are fading away gradually and the world lauds the grand efforts of the Koreans to reunify the country by our nation itself.

Last year, though the moves of the enemies to obstacle the implementation of the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration were more ferocious than ever before, a great progress unimaginable in the past was made in our people's struggle to realize the national reunification in an early date through developing the inter-Korean relations.

Of course it was not realized easily.

The US imperialists instigated the military war hawks of south Korea to cause the armed conflict in the west sea last June in a bid to drive a wedge in the inter-Korean relations when the anti-American mood was mounting in south Korea and the atmosphere of the nation’s solidarity in the south-north relations was getting favorable.

The situation got extremely tense and the inter-Korean relations were cooled down into a showdown phase.

Just at this juncture the respected Marshal Kim Jong Il, the great lodestar of the national reunification provided a wise guidance to incapacitate the anti-reunification and anti-north offensive and elate the atmosphere of dialogue and reunification through the active and positive dialogue drive, not to strain the situation being caught in a trap of the enemies.

As a result, the suspended ministerial, economic, the Red Cross and military working-level talks were resumed between the authorities of the South and North, the project to relink the railways and roads launched and the meeting of the separated families and the South visit of the North’s economic observer’s group took place.

In the civic level, no less than 30 dramatic events were made in succession like the August 15 national reunification meeting in Seoul, the north-south reunification soccer game in Seoul, the performance of the KBS Orchestra and the MBC Art Group in Pyongyang and its TV broadcasting in the same time, the Pyongyang visit of the religionist delegation of south Korea, the reunification meetings of the youth and students and the women of the South and North, the exchange of the Taekwondo exhibition groups, the participation of the North’s sportsmen and rooters in the Busan Asiad and the south-north joint celebration of the National Foundation Day.

It was the US who was most perplexed by the progress in the inter-Korean relations.

The Bush administration dispatched its special envoy to Pyongyang to explode the nuclear issue and made the situation tenser again.

The world expressed apprehensions over the south-north relations that would get worse owing to the nuclear issue the Bush team picked flaws with.

It was, however groundless.

In the early days of this year the North sent the delegation to the ministerial talks in Seoul and arranged the Red Cross working talks, the Pyongyang visit of Jong Mong-hun, president of Hyundai Asan group, the meeting of the working-level delegation for relinking the railways and roads and the Pyongyang visit of the south side delegation of the preparatory committee of the headquarters for proceeding the joint national functions for the year 2003, so consolidated the mutual trust and reconciliation and the reunification volition of our nation itself.

The world said that one of the US purposes in fabricating the North’s nuclear issue was to wreck the inter-Korean relations but the American scheme ended up in a failure by the iron-will of Kim Jong Il, chairman of the National Defenses Commission and he bewildered the US through developing the inter-Korean relations actually after the nuclear problem broke out, unsparingly praising him.

95.7 % of the south Koreans support the June 15 joint declaration in a survey of the students and pupils’ opinion last January and 81 % of the respondents favored the rapid reunification, 89.9 % considered the north Koreans as close friends, and 93.9 % considered them as neighbors in one village.

The day of the independent reunification is nearing under the rays of the great sun.