To defuse the political and military confrontation is the primary requirement for improving the inter-Korean relations, promoting the national reconciliation and cooperation and reunifying the country, the article notes, and goes on:

The inter-Korean relations cannot be improved while the tension is being escalated and the danger of a war is increasing.

The inter-Korean relations can neither be improved nor can the efforts to achieve reconciliation and cooperation prove successful nor can peace be preserved as long as the said relations remain in the state of confrontation and on the brink of war without dialogue, contact and cooperation.

The developments on the Korean Peninsula prove that it is impossible to wipe out the distrust and misunderstanding between fellow countrymen, nor is it possible for the north and the south to trust and get reconciled with each other and they will only suffer from military clashes and serious disasters unless the south Korean conservative authorities put an end to their policy for confrontation and war against the nation, peace and reunification.

As the joint New Year editorial stressed, the stand of attaching importance to the nation, the stand toward independent reunification, is the touchstone by which to distinguish patriotism from treachery.

The separatist forces at home and abroad are becoming evermore pronounced in their anti-reunification moves, but the trend of the times is definitely in favor of improved inter-Korean relations and national reunification. No force on earth can break the will of the Koreans to advance toward the independent reunification, peace and prosperity in the idea of "By our nation itself" reflected in the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration.