NoKor abolishes agencies working for reunification

Seoul, South Korea — Kim Jong Un threatened South Korea with war if “even 0.001 mm” of the North’s territory is violated, as Pyongyang abolished agencies that oversaw cooperation and reunification, state media said Tuesday.

The North Korean leader also said Pyongyang would not recognise the two countries’ de facto maritime border, the Northern Limit Line, and called for constitutional changes allowing the North to “occupy” Seoul in war, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

In Seoul, President Yoon Suk Yeol told his cabinet that should the nuclear-armed North carry out a provocation, South Korea would hit back with a response “multiple times stronger”, pointing to his military’s “overwhelming response capabilities”.

The hawkish rhetoric on both sides of the border follows a sharp deterioration of inter-Korean ties in recent months, with Pyongyang’s November spy satellite launch prompting Seoul to partially suspend a 2018 military agreement aimed at defusing tensions.

Pyongyang’s decision to jettison the agencies charged with overseeing cooperation and reunification with the South was announced by the North’s rubber-stamp parliament, KCNA said, part of a string of recent measures that have escalated tensions, including live-fire artillery drills and missile launches.

In a speech delivered at the Supreme People’s Assembly, Kim called for drawing up new legal measures to define South Korea as “the most hostile state”, KCNA reported.

“In my opinion, we can specify in our constitution the issue of completely occupying, subjugating and reclaiming the ROK (Republic of Korea) and annex it as a part of the territory of our Republic in case a war breaks out on the Korean peninsula,” Kim said.

“If the Republic of Korea violates even 0.001 mm of our territorial land, air and waters, it will be considered a war provocation,” he said.

‘Principal enemy’

The decision comes shortly after Kim labelled South Korea the “principal enemy” and stated that continuing to seek reconciliation was a “mistake”.

In their constitutions, both North and South Korea claim sovereignty over the whole of the peninsula.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Republic of Korea -- the North and South’s official names -- were founded 75 years ago but still technically regard each other as illegal entities.

Until now, what passed for diplomatic relations was handled by Seoul’s Unification Ministry and Pyongyang’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification -- one of the agencies the Supreme People’s Assembly has now declared abolished.