KCNA Commentary Calls on South Korea to Respond to Patriotic Appeal for Independent Reunification

 Pyongyang January 6 (KCNA) -- National reunification is the most pressing and vital task facing the Korean nation.
    Supreme leader Kim Jong Un in his New Year Address made a hearty appeal to usher in a new era of independent reunification by the efforts of the Korean nation.
    The Korean nation has been in the pangs of national division for more than 70 years and exposed to the danger of war in the hottest spot in the world due to the persistent ambition of outsiders for aggression and anti-reunification moves of the war-like forces within and without.
    Last year when the nation greeted the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation, the anti-reunification forces in south Korea that are not desirous of national reunification and improved inter-Korean relations ran amuck to ignite a war in league with outsiders and even created a touch-and-go situation on the Korean Peninsula.
    The situation which prevailed in August last year showed that even a trifling incidental conflict between the north and the south might spark a war and escalate into an all-out war.
    The U.S. and south Korean war maniacs conducted large-scale military exercises aimed at a nuclear war against the DPRK one after another, throwing serious obstacles in the way of improving the inter-Korean relations and rendering the situation on the peninsula extremely tense.
    While stepping up the saber-rattling against the compatriots in the north in league with outside forces, the south Korean authorities went busy with solicitation diplomacy over the internal issue of the Korean nation, the issue of national reunification.
    After setting the "unification under liberal democracy" as an ultimate goal of the "policy towards the north", they made frequent foreign tours to solicit help for their scenario of "unification of social systems" under the signboard of "unification diplomacy".
    "International cooperation" in the confrontation with the DPRK only ended up with miserable consequences of blocking the development of inter-Korean relations and leaving the fate of the nation to the tender mercy of outside forces.
    All these facts once again taught a historical lesson that the inter-Korean relations can never improve and the nation will suffer a war disaster unless an end is put to the foreign interference in the reunification of Korea and south Korean ruling forces' acts of treachery.
    Dependence on outsiders finally leads to ruin.
    The south Korean ruling forces cannot shake off their disgrace as a group of traitors and anti-reunification elements and will stand cursed and denounced by all compatriots if they persistently cooperate with outsiders and pursue hostile policy against the compatriots in the north.
    If the south Korean authorities have true will for national reunification, they should stop all war moves such as military drills staged with outsiders targeting the north, to begin with, and strive to create peaceful environment favorable for national reunification.
    It is necessary to reject foreign interference and resolve the issues of inter-Korean relations and national reunification independently as desired by the nation.
    Nobody will bring reunification to the Korean nation.
    In response to the patriotic appeal of

Kim Jong Un, all Koreans are required to turn out in the nationwide struggle to achieve the national reunification and adorn this year as an epochal year of ushering in a new era of independent reunification. -0-