North Korea declares South Korea 'hostile state' constitutionally: KCNA

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North Korea declares South Korea 'hostile state' constitutionally: KCNA

Published: 17 Oct. 2024, 09:06 Updated: 17 Oct. 2024, 18:41

SEO JI-EUN
seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

On Tuesday, North Korea blew up roads connecting the North and South via the Donghae and Gyeongui lines. The photo, released by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, shows the destruction of the inter-Korean roads on the day of the explosion. [NEWS1]

North Korea officially amended its constitution to designate South Korea as a hostile state, the regime's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Thursday.

The KCNA detailed that two days prior, North Korea had severed key roads and railways connecting the North and South via the Gyeongui and Donghae lines.

The demolition, carried out on Tuesday, was described as "an inevitable and legitimate measure" reflecting the new constitutional stance that defines South Korea as a "hostile state," the KCNA said. The action was also justified as a response to rising security threats that have brought the region "to the unpredictable brink of war" due to "grave political and military provocations of the hostile forces."

The report follows the session of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, which convened on Oct. 7 and 8 to adopt the constitutional amendments. In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered removing any clauses related to peaceful unification and stipulating the country's territorial boundaries in the constitution, yet whether these changes have been made has not been confirmed.

South Korean officials believe that North Korea likely amended its constitution to reflect the labeling of South Korea as a hostile state.

"It is highly likely that the constitution has been amended," an official from South Korea's Unification Ministry told reporters, adding that it was "difficult to prejudge based only on the unclear expressions" in the KCNA report.

"The removal of unification-related clauses and the stipulation of territorial boundaries may also have been incorporated into the constitution, but it is possible that North Korea disclosed these changes indirectly due to their impact," said Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun reported that the Supreme People's Assembly was convened on Oct. 7 and 8. [NEWS1]

Some analysts suggest North Korea is slowly revealing these amendments to build the necessary legitimacy — given that unification was a central part of the legacies of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il — and to solidify Kim Jong-un's leadership while moving away from the policies of his predecessors.

As such, North Korea appears to have abandoned its long-used "Juche," or self-reliance, calendar — a system of year numbering that uses the birthyear of late founder Kim Il-sung as "Juche 1." Since Oct. 13, the Juche calendar has disappeared from official publications, including the Rodong Sinmun, and has been replaced by the Western calendar.

North Korea emphasized its intent to isolate itself from South Korea further.

The KCNA reported that the road demolition was carried out under orders from the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea as part of a broader, phased strategy to "completely separate the sovereign territory of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) from South Korea." The DPRK is North Korea's official name.

A spokesperson from North Korea’s Ministry of Land and Environment Protection claimed that the demolition "had no negative impact on the surrounding ecological environment," adding that it has completely separated all connections between the two Koreas, according to the report.

A spokesperson from North Korea’s Ministry of Defense warned of further actions, stating that North Korea will "continue to take measures to permanently fortify the closed southern border."

In response, South's Unification Ministry "strongly denounced" North Korea’s potential constitutional changes and called them "an anti-unification and anti-national act that betrays the hopes of both the South Korean and North Korean people for reunification."

UPDATE Oct. 17: Comments from the South Korean government and experts added.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]