(2nd LD) N.K. leader calls for defining S. Korea as 'No. 1 hostile country' in constitution

▲ This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 16, 2024, shows the North's leader Kim Jong-un delivering a speech at the 10th session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly held in Pyongyang the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

▲ This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 16, 2024, shows the North holding the 10th session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly held in Pyongyang the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

(2nd LD) N Korea-parliamentary meeting

(2nd LD) N.K. leader calls for defining S. Korea as 'No. 1 hostile country' in constitution

(ATTN: UPDATES more details throughout; ADDS photos)

By Kim Soo-yeon

SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for revising the country's constitution to define South Korea as the "No. 1 hostile country" and to codify the commitment to "completely occupying" the South Korean territory in the event of war, state media reported Tuesday.

In a speech delivered at a key parliamentary meeting Monday, Kim called for drawing up legal measures to define South Korea not as a counterpart for reconciliation and unification, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"In the event of war on the Korean Peninsula, it is important to take into account the issue of completely occupying, suppressing, reclaiming the Republic of Korea (ROK) and subjugating it into the territory of the republic," Kim said, using the full name of South Korea.

He called for stipulating in the constitution that education programs should be strengthened to get North Koreans to "firmly regard the Republic of Korea thoroughly as the No. 1 hostile country and invariable principal enemy."

Kim addressed the nation at the 10th session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), about two weeks after he defined relations with South Korea as those between "two states hostile to each other" at a year-end party meeting.

The SPA is the highest organ of state power under the North's constitution, but it actually only rubber-stamps decisions by the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).

In line with Kim's new definition of the two Koreas' ties, North Korea also decided to abolish three agencies meant to promote inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation.

The bodies in question are the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, the National Economic Cooperation Bureau and the Kumgangsan International Tourism Administration.

The North's cabinet and related organizations will take "practical" measures to implement the SPA decision, it added.

At Monday's meeting, Kim also ordered steps to dismantle "remnants of the past" that can be regarded as symbols of inter-Korean reconciliation.

"We need to thoroughly take measures step-by-step to completely separate all connections between the two Koreas in border areas, including the need to physically cut the North side of the Gyeongui land route, to unrecoverable levels," he said.

The North's leader also ordered the dismantling of the Arch of Reunification, a monument built in 2001 in Pyongyang to mark late founder Kim Il-sung's blueprint for federation system-based unification.

Touching on the North's nuclear weapons, Kim reiterated his country will not avoid war though it has no intention to unilaterally start an armed conflict unless provoked.

"If the ROK invades our territory, airspace and waters even by 0.001 millimeters, we will regard it as provocations for war," Kim said, adding that his country will not recognize the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto inter-Korean maritime border.

North Korea has not recognized the NLL, long demanding that the line be moved farther south as it was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command after the 1950-53 Korean War.

The North fired hundreds of rounds of artillery shells near the tense sea border in the Yellow Sea earlier this month, prompting the South Korean military to carry out live-fire drills in response.

"A war will terribly annihilate the ROK and end it. The United States will suffer unimaginable disasters and defeats," Kim warned.

At the year-end party meeting, Kim urged stepped-up war readiness to deter what he called "unprecedented" acts of U.S.-led confrontation against his country and preparations for a "great event to suppress South Korea's whole territory in the event of a contingency.

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