North Korea calls South Korea a ‘hostile state,’ indicating constitution change
North Korea has designated South Korea a “hostile state,” its state media said, confirming a change in the constitution to drop unification as a national goal.
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has designated South Korea a “hostile state,” its state media said Thursday, confirming that its national assembly had amended the constitution in line with leader Kim Jong Un’s vow to drop unification as a national goal.
The North’s KCNA news agency reported that the military had blasted sections of road and rail links with South Korea on Tuesday as a legitimate action against a hostile state as defined by the constitution.
Sixty-six yard sections of the road and railway on the North’s side of the border were now completely blocked as part of a “phased complete separation of its territory” from the South, it said.
“This is an inevitable and legitimate measure taken in keeping with the requirement of the DPRK Constitution which clearly defines the ROK as a hostile state,” KCNA said, using the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and South Korea’s, the Republic of Korea.
KCNA cited a defense ministry spokesperson as saying the country would take further steps to “permanently fortify the closed southern border” but did not mention any other changes to the constitution that Kim had ordered.
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