North Korea announced this Thursday that its Constitution now designates South Korea as a “hostile state”, confirming for the first time a change promised in January by its leader Kim Jong Un, and justifying the dynamiting of the only two roads and railway lines connecting the two enemy countries.
These lines of communication located to the east and west of the Korean peninsula, which were the only ones to have been briefly reopened since the end of the Korean War in 1953, “were completely blocked by means of explosions”wrote the official KCNA agency, confirming information released Tuesday by Seoul. “This is an unavoidable and legitimate measure taken pursuant to the requirements of the Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea which clearly defines the Republic of Korea as a hostile state.”KCNA said, referring to North and South Korea by their official names.
This is the first time that Pyongyang has confirmed the inclusion in its Constitution of the status of“Hostile state” for South Korea, a measure announced by Kim Jong Un in January before the Supreme National Assembly, the North Korean parliament. “In my opinion, we can specify in our Constitution the question of the complete occupation, subjugation and reconquest of the Republic of Korea and its annexation as part of the territory of our Republic in the event of war in the Korean peninsula“, he declared. He also threatened to go to war for any violation of North Korean territory “even if only by 0.001 millimeter”.
Previously, under an inter-Korean agreement in 1991, relations with the South were defined as “special relationship” as part of a reunification process, not as a state-to-state relationship. The announcement of the constitutional change and the destruction of infrastructure that accompanies it mark a new stage in the radicalization of the policy of the Kim Jong Un regime towards South Korea. In January, the North Korean leader designated the South as “main enemy” of his country.
“On the brink of war”
KCNA justified the demolitions of roads and railways, carried out entirely on the North Korean side, by the “serious political and military provocations by hostile forces” who, according to her, put the two Koreas “on the verge of war”. Pyongyang “will continue to take steps to permanently fortify the closed southern border“added a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense quoted by KCNA.
In practice, the border between the two Koreas is already completely closed. Since 1953, the two inter-Korean highways and railway lines have only been restored and reopened during brief periods of relaxation. South Korean Unification Ministry deplores provocation “extremely abnormal”and recalled that it was Seoul which financed the costly reconstruction of these infrastructures. “North Korea still has repayment obligations regarding this financing”he noted.
Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated considerably since the coming to power in Seoul in 2022 of conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, a supporter of a strengthening of the military alliance with the United States and Japan and of the hard line against Pyongyang, which has nuclear weapons and which regularly carries out ballistic missile tests in violation of numerous United Nations resolutions.
South Korea, the United States and Japan regularly conduct joint military exercises that Pyongyang views as dress rehearsals for an invasion of the North or an overthrow of its regime.
The current escalation comes as the North Korean regime complains about drone flights which it claims have dropped propaganda leaflets full of propaganda on the capital. “inflammatory rumors and nonsense”. Pyongyang accuses Seoul, and warns that one more drone would be considered “a declaration of war”.
Local speculation in South Korea points to South Korean activists, who are accustomed to propaganda actions towards the North, consisting of sending leaflets or dollars generally by balloon but also sometimes using small drones that are difficult to detect.
Since May, North Korea has sent thousands of balloons loaded with rubbish toward the South, prompting Seoul to resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border and suspend a peace deal. 2018 intended to prevent military skirmishes.
