North Korea's constitution now designates the South as a “hostile state”

North Korea announced on Thursday that its constitution now designates South Korea as a “hostile state,” confirming for the first time a change promised in January by its leader Kim Jong Un, and justifying the dynamiting of the only two roads and railways connecting the two enemy countries.

These communication routes located in the east and west of the Korean Peninsula, which were the only ones to have ever briefly reopened since the end of the Korean War in 1953, “were completely blocked by means of explosions,” the official agency wrote. KCNA, confirming information released Tuesday by Seoul.

“This is an inevitable and legitimate measure, taken in accordance with the requirements of the Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which clearly defines the Republic of Korea as a hostile state,” KCNA said, referring to North and South Korea by their official names.

This is the first time that Pyongyang has confirmed the inclusion in its constitution of the “hostile state” status for South Korea, a measure announced by Kim Jong Un in January before the Supreme National Assembly, the North's parliament.

“In my opinion, we can specify in our Constitution the issue of complete occupation, subjugation and recapture of the Republic of Korea and its annexation as part of the territory of our Republic in the event of war on the Korean Peninsula,” he said. He also threatened to go to war if North Korean territory was violated “even by 0.001 millimeters.”

Previously, under an inter-Korean agreement in 1991, relations with the South were defined as a “special relationship” within the framework of a reunification process, and not as a state-to-state relationship.

The announcement of the constitutional change and the destruction of infrastructure that accompanied it mark a new stage in the radicalization of the Kim Jong Un regime's policy toward South Korea. In January, the North Korean leader designated the South as his country's “main enemy.”

– “On the brink of war” –

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KCNA justified the demolitions of roads and railways, carried out entirely on the North Korean side, by the “serious political and military provocations of the hostile forces” which, according to it, have put the two Koreas “on the brink of war”.

A South Korean checkpoint on the road to the North Korean city of Kaesong on October 15, 2024 © AFP – JUNG YEON-JE

Pyongyang “will continue to take measures to permanently fortify the closed southern border,” a Defense Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by KCNA.

In practice, the border between the two Koreas is already completely closed. Since 1953, the two inter-Korean roads and two inter-Korean railway lines have only been restored and reopened during brief periods of détente.

The South Korean Unification Ministry deplored an “extremely abnormal” provocation, and recalled that it was Seoul that had financed the costly reconstruction of these infrastructures. “North Korea still has repayment obligations on that funding,” he noted.

Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated significantly since conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol came to power in Seoul in 2022, a supporter of a stronger military alliance with the United States and Japan and a hard line against nuclear-armed Pyongyang, which regularly tests ballistic missiles in violation of numerous United Nations resolutions.

South Korea, the United States and Japan regularly conduct joint military exercises that Pyongyang considers dress rehearsals for an invasion of the North or an overthrow of its regime.

The current escalation comes as the North Korean regime complains about drone overflights that it says have dropped propaganda leaflets over the capital filled with “inflammatory rumors and nonsense.” Pyongyang accuses Seoul, and warns that one more drone would be considered “a declaration of war.”

Local speculation in South Korea points to South Korean militants, who are accustomed to propaganda actions toward the North, consisting of sending leaflets or dollars generally by balloon but also sometimes using small drones that are difficult to detect.

Since May, North Korea has sent thousands of balloons loaded with garbage toward the South, which prompted Seoul to resume its propaganda broadcasts by loudspeaker along the border and to suspend a 2018 agreement intended to prevent military clashes.

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