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NKorea Defines South as Hostile State 10/17 06:10
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea confirmed Thursday that its recently
revised constitution defines South Korea as "a hostile state" for the first
time, two days after it blew up front-line road and rail links that once
connected the country with the South.
The back-to-back developments indicate North Korea is intent on escalating
animosities against South Korea, increasing the danger of possible clashes at
their tense border areas, though it's highly unlikely for the North to launch
full-scale attacks in the face of more superior U.S. and South Korea forces.
The official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that its recent
demolition of parts of the northern sections of the inter-Korean road and rail
links was "an inevitable and legitimate measure taken in keeping with the
requirement of the DPRK constitution which clearly defines the ROK as a hostile
state."
DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official
name, while ROK stands for Republic of Korea, the South's formal name.
South Korea's Unification Ministry condemned North Korea's constitutional
reference to South Korea as a hostile state, calling it "an anti-unification,
anti-national act." It said the South Korean government will sternly respond to
any provocations by North Korea and unwaveringly push for a peaceful Korean
unification based on the basic principle of freedom and democracy.
North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament met for two days last week to rewrite
the constitution but state media hadn't provided many details about the
session. Leader Kim Jong Un had earlier called for the constitutional change at
that parliamentary meeting to designate South Korea as the country's main
enemy, remove the goal of a peaceful Korean unification and define North
Korea's sovereign, territorial sphere.
Thursday's KCNA dispatch gave no further details of the new constitution,
except the description of South Korea.
"There may still be an internal propaganda review underway about the
appropriate way to disclose the constitutional revisions, but this confirmation
was expected," said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace.
Kim's order in January to rewrite the constitution caught many foreign
experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared
statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his
predecessors' long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on
the North's terms. In the past months, North Korea has torn down monuments
symbolizing rapprochement with South Korea and abolished state agencies
handling inter-Korean relations.
Some experts say Kim likely aims to guard against South Korean cultural
influence and bolster his family's dynastic rule. Others say Kim wants legal
room to use his nuclear weapons against South Korea by making it as a foreign
enemy state, not a partner for potential unification which shares a sense of
national homogeneity. They say Kim may also want to seek direct dealings with
the U.S. in future diplomacy on its nuclear program, not via South Korea.
"North Korea has fallen so far behind the South that any social exchange or
financial integration might look like paths to unification by absorption," said
Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University
in Seoul.
"Pyongyang's rejection of peaceful Korean unification is thus a strategy for
regime survival and maintaining domestic control. This not only bodes ill for
diplomacy but could also become an ideology motivating military aggression
against Seoul," Easley said.
KCNA, citing North Korea's Defense Ministry, reported that North Korea on
Tuesday blew up the 60-meter (197 feet)-long sections of two pairs of the roads
and railway routes -- one pair on the western portion of the inter-Korean
border and the other on the eastern side of the border.
Largely built with South Korean money, the road and rail links were once a
major symbol of now-dormant inter-Korean reconciliation movements. In the
2000s, the two Koreas reconnected the road and rail routes for the first time
since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, but their operations were halted later
as the rivals bickered over North Korea's nuclear ambitions and other issues.
Last week, North Korea said it would permanently block its border with South
Korea and build front-line defense structures. South Korean officials said
North Korea had been adding anti-tank barriers and laying mines along the
border since earlier this year.
Animosities between the Koreas increased in recent days, with North Korea
accusing South Korea of flying drones over its capital Pyongyang three times
this month and vowing strong military responses if similar incidents happen
again. South Korea has refused to confirm whether it sent drones but warned
that North Korea will face a regime demise if the safety of South Korean
citizens is threatened.
Many observers say North Korea won't likely launch a full-blown war because
it knows its military is outgunned by the U.S. and South Korean forces, and
that North Korea ultimately aims to use its advancing nuclear program as
leverage to wrest sanctions relief from the U.S. But they say a miscalculation
could still lead to border clashes.
Intense outside attention has been on whether the North Korean
constitutional change includes new legal, territorial claims around the Koreas'
disputed western sea boundary, the site where several deadly skirmishes and
bloodsheds happened in the past 25 years.
"South Korea and the United States need not overreact to North Korean moves.
The recent drone incident raises the possibility of miscalculation and
escalation," Panda, the expert, said.
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