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2007 Brings New Phase in National Reunification

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

   Pyongyang, December 29 (KCNA) -- Juche 96 (2007) has witnessed that the vigorous efforts to usher in the June 15 era of reunification have opened a new aspect for national reunification.
    Political parties, government and organizations of the DPRK issued a joint statement on January 17, calling on all the Koreans in the north, the south and overseas to turn out as one in the drive to make this year as a year of attaching importance to the nation, defending peace and achieving unity.
    A meeting of officials to accelerate the reunification in 2007 was held under the sponsorship of the South Headquarters of the National Alliance of Youth and Students for the Country's Reunification (Pomchonghakryon). At the meeting, the representatives of south Korean youth and students declared at home and abroad that they would be the vanguards to demonstrate the spirit of giving priority to the nation and the spirit of defending the nation. Organizations of overseas Koreans including the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, the General Association of Koreans in China and the International United Confederation of Koreans manifested their resolution to shine the June 15 reunification era under the banner of an idea of attaching importance to the nation.
    Meetings were arranged between the north and the south and joint reunification functions were held. Cooperation, interchange and travel for the national reconciliation, unity and reunification took place briskly.
    In particular, thanks to the lofty patriotic intention and will of leader Kim Jong Il the historic north-south submit was arranged and the "Declaration for the Development of North-South Relations and Peace and Prosperity" was made public on October 4. They were noteworthy events which opened up a new epochal phase in the movement for national reunification.
    Talks and contacts between the north and the south were held in various fields in the year. Among them were the first inter-Korean premier talks, two rounds of inter-Korean ministerial talks, the north-south general-level military talks, the second north-south defence minister-level talks, the north-south military working-level talks, the 13th meeting of the North-South Committee for the Promotion of Economic Cooperation and the 8th and 9th north-south Red Cross talks.
    The grand festival for national reunification marking the 7th anniversary of the publication of the June 15 joint declaration held in Pyongyang and the May Day reunification meeting of workers in the north and the south of Korea for implementing the June 15 joint declaration held in Changwon City, South Kyongsang Province, south Korea, fully demonstrated the strong will of the Korean nation to shape the destiny of the nation independently.
    This year also witnessed the joint participation of the athletes from the north and south in the opening ceremony of the 6th Asian Winter Games with the Korean peninsula flag in their van, several meetings of separated families and relatives, the trial train operations in the re-linked railway sections between the north and the south on the east and west coasts and a ceremony for the completion of the Singye Temple which was jointly restored by Buddhists in the north and the south.
    An agreement on tourism between the north and the south was concluded and the national economic cooperation was briskly carried on in the Kaesong Industrial Zone.
    Indeed, it was a significant year when the entire Korean people in the north, south and abroad turned out in the pro-reunification movement and opened up a new era for the development of north-south relations and peace and prosperity.