North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stepped up a pressure campaign on South Korea by calling it the "principal enemy,” in an apparent effort to influence his neighbor’s upcoming elections.

Kim said on a visit to munitions factories that the time has come to define South Korea as the most hostile state toward North Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday.

He added that Seoul "has pursued a history of vicious confrontation with bloodshot eyes to overthrow our regime and social system for nearly 80 years.”