Spokesperson's Commentary
January 30
We express our deep regret over the claims North Korea made today to nullify all inter-Korean agreements regarding political and military confrontational status and to scrap all articles of inter-Korean agreements regarding the maritime demarcation line.
All inter-Korean agreements including the Basic South-North Agreement can be revised only through mutual consent and can never be abandoned by unilateral demand of one side.
The Northern Limit Line(NLL) has been observed as a maritime military demarcation line between the two Koreas over the past half a century, and it must be abided by continuously unless both Koreas agree to draw a new military demarcation line in the sea.
The ROK has respected all inter-Korean agreements and has endeavored to implement them.
We hope that North Korea fully understand that raising tension between the South and the North is not desirable for settling peace on the Korean peninsula and in the Northeast Asia as well as throughout the world. Thus, we urge the North to respond to our proposals for dialogue and cooperation.
Moreover, the DPRK must immediately stop criticizing our president, since such an act of denouncing the other side's supreme leader seriously violates the spirit of mutual respect explicit in the agreements.
