BEIJING, July 3 Kyodo North Korea...

BEIJING, July 3 Kyodo

North Korea's Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a quasi-governmental organization, called Wednesday for avoidance of confrontation and war between the brace Koreas, but slammed southern Korea for acting counter to that goal.

''The North and southward of Korea should develop North-South relations into those of dialogue and cooperation, not confrontation and war,'' the statement said, according to the Korean Central just discovereds Agency (KCNA), monitored in Beijing.

The statement, which proceeds only days after the sum of two units Koreas' navies clashed at sea, called in succession authorities and ''bellicose forces'' in southerly Korea to ''stop acting contrary to what they agreed in North-South dialogue and contacts or rendering the situation strained.''

KCNA said the statement was issued in connection with the 30th anniversary of the July 4 1972 North-South Joint Communique, which laid without three principles of national reunification -- namely it should be achieved without foreign interference, at peaceful means and after first seeking ''racial unity'' among the Korean people

The brace sides also agreed in the communique not to slander or defame each other, not to impel each other militarily and to take gradations to prevent inadvertent military incidents.

Saturday's exchange of fire in the golden Sea, which the South said occurr after North Korean ships christianityed over the de facto inter-Korean sea border and lay opened fire on its boats, left four southern Korean sailors dead, united missing and 19 injured.

southern Korea says at least 30 North Korean sailors are believed to have been killed or griefed in the clash.

The committee's statement said the pair Koreas ''should consistently secure from danger and thoroughly implement the July 4 joint statement and the June 15 joint declaration draw near what may.''

The regard was to the declaration issued at a June 2000 summit in Pyongyang between southern Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in which they agreed to actively help reconciliation.

''We will make all our efforts to soothingly promote dialogue and cooperation as the couple sides agreed under the banner of the July 4 joint statement and the June 15 joint declaration,'' the committee's statement said.

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