Chosun Shinbo, the publication of Chongryon (General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan), warned South Korea on the 31st that tensions are at their worst since the nuclear test was held and the Six Party Talks were restored in 2007.

Chosun Shinbo’s article, entitled “A dangerous incitement cracking down a chance of peace and prosperity,” claimed that “A trend of tension is being created on Korean Peninsula.”

Chosun Shinbo said that “The situation has been rapidly reversing, so that President Roh’s crossing the DMZ on foot looks like a faraway old story.”

It added that “It is true that the October 3 Agreement of the Six Party Talks fell into a stalemate. However, the Lee Myung Bak administration is responsible for returning North-South relations to the past period of confrontation by repeating speeches and actions annoying to the other side of the nation.”

It emphasized that “When the Six Party Talks was about to enter an implementation phase and the removal of the U.S.’ hostile policy on North Korea was just about to be discussed, the Lee administration intensified the confrontation and antagonism between the North and the South by saying that they would ignore the policy of previous administrations. It may become a block against the process of the Six Party Talks.”

Chosun Shinbo expressed North Korea’s complaint that “At his inauguration speech, regarding North-South relations, President Lee Myung Bak mentioned only ‘denuclearization-first’ and posted the ‘Vision 3000: Denuclearization and Opening’ without examining the intent of his counterpart.”

It further criticized that “Minister of Unification Kim Ha Joong has never mentioned a single word about ‘June 15 North-South Joint Declaration, 2000’ or ‘October 4 Joint Declaration’ and President Lee has said such and such about 1992 Inter-Korean Basic Agreement signed right after the breaking of the cold war period.”

Additionally, “The seditious words of the South’s military official (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Kim Tae Young’s answer at a hearing) did not arise from his own private opinion but from this trend, which is characteristic of the Lee administration,” it relayed.

Chosun Shinbo warned “Pyongyang citizens now regard the Lee Administration as a bellicose power that may attack their nation without hesitation. If they cannot change the thinking of Pyongyang’s citizens, North-South relations will take a step backward and the situation could be more complicatedly entangled.”