North Korea strongly criticized South Korea's Park Geun-hye administration Thursday for working to create a new charter for the reunification of Korea.
   
In the inaugural meeting of the Presidential Committee for Unification Preparation in August, Park said her administration will declare the charter next year, the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's 35-year colonial rule. She said it will serve as a basis for the Constitution of a reunified Korea.
   
"It demonstrates the South's pursuit of unification by absorption," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland claimed in a statement.
   
The committee accused the Park government of seeking confrontation while speaking publicly about the need for dialogue and mutual trust.
  
It said unification-related principles are already in place, citing the 1972 three-point charter laid down by the North's late leader, Kim Il-sung, and two inter-Korean summit agreements each in 2000 and 2007.
   
The committee urged the South to abide by the summit deals first. 
   
The statement marked Pyongyang's clearest response yet to the Park administration plan. (Yonhap)