Jamaica Gleaner

Kim declares South permanent adversary

North Korea will no longer pursue reconcilia­tion with South because of hostility, Kim Jong Un says

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NORTH KOREAN leader Kim Jong Un said his country would no longer pursue reconcilia­tion with South Korea and called for rewriting the North’s constituti­on to eliminate the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided countries, state media said on Tuesday.

The historic step to discard a decades-long pursuit of a peaceful unificatio­n, which was based on a sense of national homogeneit­y shared by both Koreas, comes amid heightened tensions where the pace of both Kim’s weapons developmen­t and the South’s military exercises with the United States have intensifie­d in a tit-for-tat.

Some experts say Kim could be aiming to diminishin­g South Korea’s voice in regional security matters and communicat­e more clearly that he would seek to deal directly with the United States over the nuclear standoff, which has deepened amid disagreeme­nts over the stringent US-led sanctions over his growing nuclear weapons programme.

Declaring the South as a permanent adversary, not as a potential partner for reconcilia­tion, could also be part of efforts to improve the credibilit­y of Kim’s escalatory nuclear doctrine, which authorises the military to launch preemptive nuclear attacks against adversarie­s if it perceives the leadership in Pyongyang as under threat.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “concerned about what we’re hearing, what we’re seeing” in the cut in contacts, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

“For us, it’s very clear that diplomatic engagement remains the only possible path for sustainabl­e peace on the Korean peninsula, for a complete and verifiable denucleari­sation of the Korean peninsula,” he told reporters at UN headquarte­rs in New York.

The North Korean steps come as Kim has been actively boosting his partnershi­ps with Moscow and Beijing as he attempts to break out of diplomatic isolation and increase his leverage by joining a united front against Washington.

North Korea also abolished the key government agencies that had been tasked with managing relations with South Korea during a meeting of the country’s rubberstam­p parliament on Monday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

 ?? UNCREDITED ?? In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks at the Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang, North Korea Monday, January 15.
UNCREDITED In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks at the Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang, North Korea Monday, January 15.

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