Kim Jong Un Calls for Paving Wide Avenue to National Reunification

Pyongyang, January 1 (KCNA) -- Respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un in his New Year address for 2017 said that this year marks the 45th anniversary of the historic July 4 joint statement and the 10th anniversary of the October 4 declaration, underscoring the need to pave a wide avenue to independent reunification by pooling efforts of the whole nation. He said it is imperative to take active measures to improve the north-south ties and defuse acute military conflict and the danger of a war between the north and the south. All kinds of slandering getting on the nerves of the other party and inciting confrontation can not be justified under any circumstances and sinister anti-DPRK smear campaign and hostile acts being staged with hope pinned on the overturn of social system and "change" must immediately be stopped. Consistent is the stand of the DPRK not to fight with fellow countrymen but defend the wellbeing of the fellow countrymen and peace of the country. The south Korean authorities should not strain the situation by groundlessly faulting the DPRK's exercise of its right to self-defence but respond to our sincere efforts to prevent military conflicts and defuse tension between the north and the south. All the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad should solidarize and get united on the principle of subordinating everything to national reunification, the cause common to the nation, and actively wage the reunification movement in a nationwide scale. Active contacts and visits should be made irrespective of differing ideology, system, region, idea, class and strata and a nationwide grand gathering for reunification should be realized with the involvement of the authorities, all political parties and organizations in the north and the south and people from all walks of life at home and abroad. We will hold hands with whoever prioritizes fundamental interests of the nation and wishes for the improvement of the north-south ties. A nationwide struggle should be dynamically waged to put an end to the U.S. and other outsiders' moves for aggression and intervention aimed at realizing the Asia-Pacific domination strategy while consolidating their control over south Korea, and foil the moves of the group of sycophantic traitors standing against reunification including Park Geun Hye finding a way-out in escalating confrontation with the fellow countrymen while not discerning who the truly principal enemy of the nation is. The U.S. should face up to the will of the Korean nation for reunification and no longer resort to such scheme of estranging Koreans from one another as egging the anti-reunification forces of south Korea on confrontation and war between the fellow countrymen but take a bold decision to withdraw its anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK. The international community valuing independence and justice should stand against the U.S. and its vassal forces' moves of obstructing peace and reunification of the Korean peninsula, and its surrounding countries should do things helpful to the Korean nation's aspiration and efforts for reunification. Kim Jong Un underscored the need for all the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad to step up the nationwide grand advance for reunification by the joint efforts of the nation and thus do something to make this year a very significant year in paving a new phase of independent reunification. -0-