North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday called for constitutional changes to ensure South Korea is seen as the “main enemy” and warned his country has no intention of avoiding war should it happen, state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.
In a speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly, North Korea’s parliament, Kim said he had concluded that unification with the South was no longer possible, and accused Seoul of seeking regime collapse and unification through absorption.
Kim said the constitution needs to be amended to educate North Koreans that South Korea is the “main enemy and the main unchanging enemy” and define the North’s territory as separate from the South.
“We do not want war but we do not intend to avoid it,” Kim was quoted as saying by KCNA.
North Korea should also plan to “occupy, subjugate and reclaim” South Korea in its entirety in the event of war, and South Koreans should also no longer be referred to as compatriots, Kim added, calling for all inter-Korean communications to be severed. and the destruction of monuments to reunification in Pyongyang.
A TV screen shows an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on January 16, 2024. AP North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the constitution should be amended to educate North Koreans that South Korea is ” the archenemy and archenemy that does not change.” via REUTERS
Three organizations dealing with inter-Korean unification and tourism will also be closed, state media added.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, at a cabinet meeting, said Pyongyang was being “anti-national” for calling the South a hostile country.
Kim’s call for constitutional change comes as tensions have escalated on the Korean Peninsula recently amid a series of missile tests and a push by Pyongyang to break with decades of policy and change the way it relates to the South.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un addresses the 10th session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang on Jan. 15, 2024. KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Images
Much of Kim’s speech laid out plans to improve life and he suggested his rhetoric toward South Korea and the US was designed to help maintain internal unity and achieve economic and military goals, while the US was distracted by other crises, said Lim Eul-chul, a professor of North Korean studies at the University Kyungnam South Korea.
On the other hand, Won Gon Park of Seoul’s Ewha Womans University argues that Kim appears to feel threatened by South Korea’s and the US’ strengthened nuclear deterrence, the deployment of US strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula, and trilateral military efforts with Japan.
“Kim Jong Un’s increasingly aggressive language seems to indicate he feels he is losing power in inter-Korean relations,” Park told Reuters.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
