SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will no longer seek reconciliation with South Korea and called for a rewrite of the North's constitution to eliminate the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided countries, state officials said Media on Tuesday.
The historic move to abandon a decades-long quest for peaceful unification that was based on a sense of national homogeneity shared by both Koreas comes amid heightened tensions as both Kim's weapons development and the South's military exercises with the United States have increased a competition intensified.
Some experts say Kim may be aiming to weaken South Korea's voice on regional security issues and to communicate more clearly that he would seek to negotiate directly with the United States over the nuclear standoff, which is evolving amid disagreements over strict U.S. Sanctions against him have been tightened due to his growing nuclear weapons program.
Declaring the South a permanent adversary rather than a potential reconciliation partner could also be part of an effort to increase the credibility of Kim's escalating nuclear doctrine, which authorizes the military to carry out preemptive nuclear attacks against opponents if it recognizes the leadership in Pyongyang as threatened.
The North Korean moves come as Kim is actively expanding his partnerships with Moscow and Beijing as he seeks to break out of diplomatic isolation and increase his influence by joining a united front against Washington.
North Korea also abolished key government agencies tasked with managing relations with South Korea during a session of the country's parliament on Monday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said.
The Supreme People's Assembly said the two Koreas were in an “acute confrontation” and it would be a grave mistake for the North to view the South as a diplomatic partner.
“The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, the National Economic Cooperation Bureau and the (Diamond Mountain) International Tourism Administration, instruments that existed for (North-South) dialogue, negotiations and cooperation, will be abolished,” the assembly said in an opinion opinion.
During his speech, Kim accused South Korea and the United States of escalating tensions in the region, noting that their extensive joint military exercises, deployment of strategic U.S. military assets and trilateral security cooperation with Japan are turning the Korean Peninsula into a dangerous theater of war. Risk zone, KCNA said.
Kim said it had become impossible for the North to pursue reconciliation and peaceful reunification with the South, which he described as “high-profile stooges” of external powers obsessed with confrontational maneuvers.
He called on the assembly to rewrite the North's constitution and define South Korea as the North's “main enemy and constant main enemy.” The new constitution should stipulate that North Korea will seek the “occupation, subjugation and reconquest” of South Korea as part of North Korean territory if another war breaks out on the Korean peninsula, Kim said.
He also ordered the removal of previous symbols of inter-Korean reconciliation to “completely eliminate concepts such as 'reunification,' 'reconciliation,' and 'compatriots' from the national history of our republic.”
He specifically called for the shutdown of cross-border railway sections and the demolition of a monument in Pyongyang commemorating the push for reunification, which Kim described as an eyesore.
“It is the final conclusion of the bitter history of inter-Korean relations that we cannot walk the path of national restoration and reunification together,” he said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said during a Cabinet meeting in Seoul that Kim's comments showed the “anti-national and anti-historical” nature of the government in Pyongyang. Yoon said the South maintains a strong defensive posture and will punish the North “many times harshly” if it provokes it.
“(The North)'s fake peace tactic that threatened to make us choose between 'war' and 'peace' no longer works,” Yoon said.
In his speech to the gathering, Kim reiterated that the North has no intention of starting a war unilaterally, but also has no intention of avoiding one. Citing its growing military nuclear program, he said a nuclear conflict on the Korean peninsula would end South Korea's existence and mean “unimaginable disasters and defeats for the United States.”
Kim had made similar remarks during a ruling party meeting at the end of the year, saying inter-Korean relations were “firmly anchored in relations between two mutually hostile states.” At a political conference last week, he defined South Korea as the North's “main enemy” and threatened to destroy it if provoked.
The assembly said the North Korean government would take “practical measures” to implement the decision to abolish the agencies responsible for dialogue and cooperation with the South.
The National Committee for Peaceful Reunification has been North Korea's main agency for inter-Korean affairs since its founding in 1961.
The National Economic Cooperation Bureau and the Diamond Mountain International Tourism Administration were tasked with handling joint economic and tourism projects between the Koreas during a brief period of reconciliation in the 2000s.
Such projects, including a jointly operated factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong and South Korean tours to the North's Diamond Mountain resort, have been halted for years as relations between the rivals deteriorated over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Those activities are currently banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions against the North, which have been tightened since 2016 as Kim accelerated his nuclear and missile tests.
Kim has also vowed to expand his nuclear arsenal and cut off virtually all cooperation with the South. Since the start of 2022, he has accelerated his weapons demonstrations to a record pace, using the distraction of Russia's war against Ukraine to expand his military capabilities.
Concern is also growing at the international level about an alleged arms cooperation agreement between North Korea and Russia. The United States and South Korea say North Korea has supplied Russia with weapons, including artillery and missiles, to support its fight in Ukraine.
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AP journalist Jiwon Song contributed to this report.