����PYONGYANG, January 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday strongly urged the United States to
drop its attempt to isolate the country and immediately withdraw its
troops from South Korea.
����In an editorial on Wednesday, the Korean Central News Agency said
that it is due to the U.S. anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK
and its forces' continued presence in South Korea that peace, stability
and national reunification have not been achieved on the Korean Peninsula
when the world greeted the secondyear of the 21st century.
����The U.S. administration that came into office last year is
intensifying its policy to isolate the DPRK, and is much displeased with
the progress made in the process of improving the DPRK-U.S. relations
during the former U.S. administration.
����This further worsened the situation on the Korean Peninsula last
year and had a harmful impact on the inter-Korean relations that had been
favorably developing since the publication of the June 15 North-South
joint declaration.
����Although the United States is pretending to be interested in the
DPRK-U.S. dialog, improved inter-Korean relations, and talking about the
end of the Cold War and global peace, it still maintains a Cold War
mentality.
����The division of Korea into two parts is a product of the Cold War,
and the DPRK and the United States have been hostile to each other for
over half a century, the editorial said. The United States, as a party
responsible for the division, has an unshirkable obligation to change the
situation on the Korean Peninsula.
����The United States should drop its hostile policy toward the DPRK,
conclude a peace agreement with the DPRK and withdraw its troops from
South Korea, the editorial said, noting that these arekey to improving the
situation on the Korean Peninsula.
����The U.S. troops in South Korea are the source of all misfortuneand
sufferings of the Korean people and their withdrawal from South Korea is
the first thing the United States should do in the post-Cold War era, the
editorial pointed out. Enditem
