North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has threatened Seoul with war over any violation of “even 0.001 mm” of North Korea’s territory, according to state media, after announcing the dissolution of the agencies in responsible for reunification with South Korea. He stressed that his country would not recognize the de facto maritime border between the two countries, the Northern Boundary Line, and called for constitutional changes allowing Pyongyang to “occupy” South Korea in the event of war. North Korean news agency KCNA said.
South Korea will ‘retaliate a hundredfold’ to any provocation from the North
In Seoul, President Yoon Suk Yeol responded that South Korea “will retaliate a hundredfold” to any provocation from the North, emphasizing the “overwhelming response capabilities” of the South Korean military. This verbal escalation follows a deterioration in relations between the two Koreas, at their lowest in decades, notably after the launch in November by Pyongyang of a spy satellite, and the suspension by Seoul of a 2018 military agreement aimed at ‘calm tensions down.
The dissolution of several agencies working for reunification with South Korea has been approved by the North Korean parliament. The two countries “are in acute confrontation on the Korean peninsula” and “the reunification of Korea can never be concluded with the Republic of Korea”, underlined the North Korean parliament, according to KCNA. The neighboring countries have still technically been at war since 1953, with the fighting having been stopped by an armistice and not a peace treaty.
“The question of complete occupation”
In a speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly, the North Korean leader called for new measures to define South Korea as “the most hostile country”, KCNA reported. “In my opinion, we can specify in our Constitution the question of the complete occupation, subjugation and reconquest of the Republic of Korea and its annexation as part of the territory of our Republic in the event of war in the Korean Peninsula,” Kim Jong Un said.
“If the Republic of Korea violates even 0.001 mm of our territory, airspace or sea space, it will be considered a provocation to war,” he stressed. Kim Jong Un affirmed in early January that South Korea is the North’s “main enemy” and that efforts for reunification are a mistake “not to be made again.” In their respective Constitutions, South and North Korea claim sovereignty over the entire Korean peninsula. Founded 75 years ago, they each consider the other an illegal entity.
“Reckless” measures
The meager contacts between the two countries serving as diplomatic relations were, until the dissolution of the North Korean agencies, managed by the South Korean Ministry of Unification and the North Korean Committee for Peaceful Reunification, one organizations closed by Pyongyang. North Korea’s new measures against Seoul are “reckless” and break with the approach observed for years, analysts said.
“For decades, North Korea has told its people that the completion of the revolution is reunification and that Kim Il Sung’s wish is reunification,” said Cho Han-bum, a researcher at the Korea Institute. for national unification, referring to the founder of the country. “Now (Kim Jong Un) denies everything his predecessors did,” he told AFP.
Russia, ally of North Korea
Last year, North Korea enshrined its status as a nuclear power in its constitution. It fired several intercontinental ballistic missiles, in violation of UN resolutions, with a final firing on Sunday of a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). Russia and North Korea, long-time allies, have shown a rapprochement since the North Korean leader’s trip to the Russian Far East in September 2023 to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Monday, a North Korean delegation led by Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrived in Moscow for an official visit, KCNA reported, stoking concerns about possible transfers of North Korean weapons to Moscow for its war in Ukraine.