All fellow countrymen were greatly shocked and disappointed by the news of the breakdown of the talks, the statement said.

At the working contact the south side dragged on the negotiating session for nearly 16 hours over the issues of agenda of the talks and the "level" of the heads of the delegations, it noted.

It accused the authorities of the south side of insisting that the delegation of the north side should be headed by a secretary of the Party Central Committee even though they proposed the ministerial-level talks.

It noted that the present chief executive of south Korea said as if the issue of "level" is a precondition for the talks.

It went on: The present regime informed right before the opening of the talks that it would send the vice-minister of Unification as the chief delegate of the south side, an open revelation of its attempt to deliberately torpedo the talks, contrary to the demand of the nation.

In view of the previous talks, the recently-proposed talks should have been headed by the minister of Unification from the south side and by either the chief councilor of the Cabinet or the director of the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea from the north side.

However, the authorities of the south side, described the past achievements as "abnormal practices", while talking about "principle" and "trust" in the south-north ties, and pledged to set a new principle. This is little short of denying the south-north joint declarations.

If the deeds of the authorities of the south side do not match with their words, the south-north relations will again plunge into confrontation and state of war.

The statement demanded the "government" successfully hold the talks between the authorities of the north and the south at any cost, bearing in mind that the principle and trust of the south-north relations start from the implementation of the joint declarations.