DPRK committee urges SKorea to abandon confrontation policy.

19/11 Tass 92

PYONGYANG, November 19 (Itar-Tass) - A representative of the Committee
for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea demanded from Seoul on Friday "to
soberly assess the situation and change the policy of confrontation
towards compatriots in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
supported by outside forces".
In a statement issued here on Friday, he stressed that the Seoul
authorities must as soon as possible launch cooperation and a dialogue
with Pyongyang in order to avoid "sharp criticism against them both in
South Korea and abroad".
The committee believes Seoul must "stop empty talk about changes in
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea". It said that if South Korea is
concerned about nuclear deterrent forces possessed by North Korea, "it
must not prevent the resumption of six-way talks on denuclearisation of
the Korean peninsula".
Besides, the statement said that if the incident with the sinking of
the South Korean Cheonan corvette in the Yellow Sea at the end of March
was not a plot aimed against North Korea, "Seoul must allow military
inspectors from Pyongyang to the site of the shipwreck".
The statement of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea
came as a reaction to some statements by South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak and other top officials from his administration.
They said, in particular, that the normalisation of inter-Korean
relations would happen only after North Korea apologised for the sinking
of the corvette. The president also demanded from Pyongyang to get rid of
nuclear weapons.
-0-zhe/ast