North Korea's Kim Jong Un brands Seoul 'principal enemy' on weapons factory tour

As he visited important weapons factories on Wednesday, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un called South Korea his nation’s “principal enemy” and declared that he would not think twice about destroying it, according to state media. The revelation comes in the wake of recent live-fire drills conducted by Pyongyang’s military close to the disputed maritime boundary, which triggered counter-drills and evacuation orders for people living on two border islands in South Korea. Photos published by the official media featured Kim, dressed in a long black leather jacket, in front of what observers believed to be short-range ballistic missile launchers—which may or may not be nuclearly capable. “The historic time has come at last when we should define as a state most hostile toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea the entity called the Republic of Korea (South Korea),” Kim was reported as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency. Kim, urging factory workers to modernise and “produce more weapons”, said he had “no intention of avoiding a war” and warned he would have no hesitation in “annihilating” South Korea, KCNA added. The factory visit was announced only one day after the United States and around 50 other nations denounced what they believed to be North Korea’s weapons exports to Russia for use in Ukraine, a move that would have violated many UN sanctions. Last week, the North was allegedly transferring missiles and launchers to Russia, according to the White House, which described this as a “significant and concerning escalation” of its assistance for Moscow’s war effort. One of the most significant escalations between the two sides since 2010—when the North bombarded Yeonpyeong Island and killed four people, including two marines—was the commencement of the live-fire drills last Friday. ‘Much tougher stance’ Kim, accompanied by senior party and military officials, toured multiple munitions factories on Monday and Tuesday, KCNA said, describing the visits as encouragement “in the struggle for attaining the huge production goal for the new year”. Kim said that while the North would not “unilaterally” trigger a confrontation, it had “no intention of avoiding a war”. Were Seoul to use force against the North, “we will have no hesitation in annihilating the ROK by mobilising all means and forces in our hands,” KCNA reported Kim as saying. Those comments signal a shift in North Korean policy and hint that Pyongyang will take a “much tougher stance” toward Seoul in future, Hong Min, of the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP. “It is the first time that the North has called the South its ‘principle enemy’, signifying the change of North Korea’s Seoul approach to an ultra-hawkish mode,” he said. The North’s recent artillery drills were “emblematic of the changed approach,” he added. Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in decades, after Kim enshrined the country’s status as a nuclear power into the constitution and test-fired several advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles. At Pyongyang’s year-end policy meetings, Kim threatened a nuclear attack on the South and called for a build-up of his country’s military arsenal ahead of armed conflict that he warned could “break out any time”. Kim also successfully put a spy satellite into orbit late last year, after receiving what Seoul said was Russian help, in exchange for arms transfers for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.