North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has called for a change to the constitution to identify South Korea as the “number one hostile state”, ending the regime’s commitment to unifying the Korean peninsula.
In a speech to the supreme people’s assembly – North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament – Kim said he no longer believed unification was possible and accused the South of attempting to foment regime change and promote unification by stealth.
In another sign of quickly deteriorating ties between the two Koreas, which ended their 1950-53 war with a truce but not a peace treaty – Kim said: “We don’t want war, but we have no intention of avoiding it.”
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Yoon also condemned North Korea’s recent missile launch and live-fire exercises near the countries’ tense maritime border, warning that provocations would invite retaliation on a “multiplied scale”.
Kim’s speech marks a departure from decades of official policy that saw reconciliation and unification as the ultimate goal, despite frequent rises in tensions on the peninsula.
Some analysts believe that by classifying the South as its biggest adversary, the North could be attempting to justify the use of nuclear weapons in any future war.
Kim said a war would “decimate” South Korea and deal an “unimaginable” defeat to its biggest ally, the US, which has almost 30,000 troops stationed in the country, according to KCNA.
“In the event of war on the Korean peninsula, I think it is also important to reflect on the issue of completely occupying, suppressing, and reclaiming [South Korea] and incorporating it into the territory of our Republic,” Kim said.
At a meeting of the ruling Workers’ party late last year, Kim Jong-un described North and South Korea as “two states hostile to each other,” the Yonhap news agency said.
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