Pyongyang, December 12 (KCNA) -- The international community is just perplexed over the U.S. sudden heated-up discussion on the issue of the divided families and relatives of Korean Americans.

    Days ago U.S. Senate and House of Representatives separately passed a "resolution" calling on the DPRK to allow Korean Americans to reunite with their kinsmen in the north and to take "confidence-building measures" conducive to bringing peace to the Korean peninsula.

    The adoption of the "resolution" was followed by such absurd comment that "a cornerstone is laid for the reunion of 100 000 Koreans living in the U.S." and "it is the wish of divided Korean families and relatives in the U.S."

    This is nothing but a trick to cover up the criminal nature of the U.S. which spawned the issue of divided families and relatives of the Korean nation and stood in the way of their reunion and escalate the "human rights" campaign against the DPRK.

    It is absolutely illogical for the U.S. to talk about the reunions of separated families and relatives of the Koreans.

    The U.S. is the very one which is responsible for the division of Korea's territory and the issue of "divided families" of millions of Koreans through A-bomb scare.

    Its illegal occupation of south Korea has left the Korean nation divided into the north and the south and the Korean war ignited by the U.S. made Korean kinsmen suffer from the misfortune and pain of division. This is the essence of the issue of divided families and relatives of Koreans.

    This notwithstanding, the U.S., feigning ignorance of its unethical crimes, is trying to give impression that it is interested in the reunions of separated families and relatives of Koreans living in the U.S. and is "urging north Korea to allow them." This impudent act is provoking laughter.

    The U.S. intends to escalate the new "human rights" campaign by taking issue with the humanitarian matter, an abuse of the kindred feelings of the divided families and relatives of Koreans in the U.S.

    This is proven by the fact that the "resolution" is peppered with sinister contents faulting the DPRK and that envoy for the human rights issue in north Korea of the U.S. State Department Robert King, "human rights" trickster, has handled the issue of divided families and relatives of Korean Americans.

    If the U.S. had neither hindered the implementation of the historic north-south declarations nor laid a stumbling block in the way of improving the north-south relations by instigating the puppet south Korean forces to escalate confrontation with the fellow countrymen in the north, the wishes of divided families and relatives in the north, south and abroad for their reunions with their kinsmen might have come true long ago.

    At a time when the reunions between divided families and relatives were under way, the U.S. frantically staged Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises, spoiling the events.

    At the instructions of the U.S., the south Korean puppet forces called for "refraining from pinning any hope on reunions of divided families and relatives because over-speed must be strictly banned". On the other hand, they kidnapped DPRK citizens in a sustained manner, deliberately producing new "divided families".

    The reunions of divided families and relatives which had become a regular event at the positive measures and sincere efforts made by the DPRK have been suspended the blame for which entirely rests with the U.S. side.

    If the U.S. is truly interested in the reunions of divided families and relatives, it has to immediately halt the anti-DPRK "human rights" campaign aimed at estranging Koreans and inciting confrontation among them. -0-