NKorea spurns down Seoul`s attempts to blame it for new crisis.

PYONGYANG, June 24 (Itar-Tass) - The North Korean leading party
newspaper Rodong Sinmun called as "ridiculous" attempts by the Seoul
administration to put responsibility for the crisis in inter-Korean
relations on Pyongyang.
The newspaper notes in an article published on Thursday that the South
Korean authorities curbed all forms of the dialogue and cooperation with
the North at its own initiative "in expectation of changes in the policy
of People's Korea".
Moreover, representatives of the regime of President Lee Myung-bak
claimed during festivities on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of
adopting the historic joint declaration of June 15, 2000 in Pyongyang that
"the crisis in inter-Korean relations took place at the fault of the North
Korean side".
The newspaper emphasises that such groundless allegations point to an
intention of Lee Myung-bak and his retinue, with assistance from the
United States, "to pump up deliberately tension in the Korean Peninsula in
a desire to sidetrack the attention of the South Korean public from
pitfalls in the foreign and domestic policies".
South Korean priest Han Sang Ryol who arrived in Pyongyang to
participate in the festivities on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of
signing the joint declaration of the North and the South, called as
"disgrace of the Seoul administration" its refusal to cooperate with North
Korea. Speaking at a news conference here, he noted that the South Korean
authorities virtually blocked a joint celebration of this event.
The priest admitted that he arrived in Pyongyang despite a ban.
"However, I could not nonchalantly see how conservative forces, led by
President Lee Myung-bak, are bringing inter-Korean relations to a
collapse," he underlined.
The joint declaration was signed during a visit to Pyongyang by Kim
Dae-jung who was South Korean president in 2000 and who met North Korean
leader Kim Jong-Il.
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