“Glorify This Year of the 60^th Anniversary of the Founding of the DPRK

as a Year of Historical Turn Which Will Go Down in the History of the Country”

(Part for reunification)

Joint New Year Editorial of leading newspapers Rodong Simun, Joson Inmingun and Chongyon Jonwi released the joint New Year editorial “Glorify This Year of Historical Turn which Will Go Down in the History of the Country” on the occasion of the New Year, Juche 97 (2008).

Last year witnessed a turning point in achieving national reunification.

The historic inter-Korean summit meeting was held in October and the Declaration for Development of North-South Relations and Peace and Prosperity adopted at the meeting amid great interest and expectation of all the compatriots. This was a significant event in advancing the cause of national reunification onto a new stage under the banner of the June 15 Joint Declaration. With our nation’s enthusiasm for reunification mounting higher than ever before, the inter-Korean high-level negotiations took place and the road to many-sided cooperation was opened. The present reality gives us firm conviction that no force on earth can check the current of the June 15 reunification era and, when the nation united as one launches a vigorous struggle, the cause of national reunification will be realized without fail.

All compatriots in the north and the south and abroad should conduct the national reunification movement more strenuously under the slogan of “Open up a new era of independent reunification and peace and prosperity by pooling the efforts of our nation!”

The October 4 declaration for the development of north-south relations and peace and prosperity is an inspiring banner that propels the independent development and reunification of the nation and an action program for applying the June 15 joint declaration to practice in an all-round way. By implementing the October 4 declaration thoroughly, we should shake off the hangovers from the age of confrontation, convert north-south relations into the by-our-nation-itself relationship not only in name but in reality and make a new history of peace and prosperity.

The main agent of the national reunification movement is the Korean nation, and dependence on the outside forces will never settle the country’s reunification issue at any time. in any case the dignity and interests of the nation should be placed above anything else, and the issues of related to national reunification be settled from a viewpoint of national independence and by our nation itself.

Pro-US sycophancy and treachery of turning the back on the trend of the times towards reunification and hindering the reconciliation and unity of the nation should not be tolerated. Legal and institutional mechanisms should be adjusted in the interests of the development of inter-Korean relations and reunification.

The source of war should be removed and lasting peace be ensured. Peace is most precious for the Korean nation that has been living in the constant danger of war for more than half a century. All the Koreans should launch a vigorous anti-war, peace campaign to foil the war moves of the hawks at home and abroad. An end should be put to the US policy hostile towards the DPRK and the Armistice Agreement be replaced with a peace pact. The aggressive joint military exercises and arms buildup should be discontinued and the US military bases be abolished in south Korea. The idea of confrontation regarding the fellow countrymen as the archenemy should be discarded, the military tension be eased, and the elements of dispute be removed.

Inter-Korean cooperation is a noble patriotic undertaking for promoting the reconciliation and unity of the nation and achieving peace, prosperity and reunification. Inter-Korean economic cooperation should be encouraged in such a way that is promoted in a diverse way and on the principle of serving the common interests and prosperity and satisfying each other’s needs. Cooperation and exchanges between the north and south should be expanded and developed to make them contribute to national reunification substantially. Anyone who loves the country and the nation and wants reunification should make a characteristic contribution to the co-prosperity of the nation.

The political parties and organizations and people from all walks of life in the north and south should subordinate everything to achieving the fellow countrymen’s desire for reunification by uniting firmly for the great cause of the nation regardless of their political ideals and principles or their political interests and policies.

All the fellow countrymen in the north and the south and abroad should make a vigorous nationwide effort for independent reunification, peace and prosperity under the “by our nation itself” banner to achieve national reunification at the earliest date.