'Hostile State': North Korea Makes Official Declaration on 'Brink of War' (October 2024)
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... North Korea has amended its constitution to define South Korea as a "hostile state," Pyongyang said Thursday.

The announcement, made in an English-language statement by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), follows Kim Jong Un's January directive to revise the constitution and officially designate the South as North Korea's "primary foe."

It also comes only days after Seoul confirmed the North had destroyed road and rail links with the South, the latest in Kim's purge of symbols of eventual inter-Korean unification. At a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea last December, he called for the country to abandon this long-standing goal and for a fulfilment of his earlier call to sever railways to "an irretrievable level."

"This is an inevitable and legitimate measure taken in keeping with the requirement of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) constitution which clearly defines the ROK (Republic of Korea) as a hostile state," KCNA said of the destruction of road and rail links, using the official names for the North and South, respectively. ...