SEOUL, June 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea claimed Monday that defending and implementing the inter-Korean joint declaration of June 15, 2000 is the only way of avoiding an all-out war on the Korean Peninsula.
"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is so tense that an accidental single gun shot may trigger off an all-out war," Yang Hyong-Sop, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, asserted in a report at a meeting held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the inter-Korean joint declaration in Pyongyang.
"Defending the inter-Korean joint declaration and thoroughly implementing it is the only way of settling the grave situation created due to the reckless moves of the anti-reunification forces to provoke a war," Yang was quoted as saying by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
"The puppet conservative group (in the south) would be well advised to stop behaving recklessly, mindful that it will face a merciless punishment by the DPRK and have to pay a dear price if it shows any slightest move for 'punishment' and 'retaliation' in league with foreign forces," he said, adding that "U.S. and Japanese reactionaries should stop at once all the hostile acts against the DPRK." |