North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he has the legal right to annihilate South Korea, in his latest move to threaten his neighbor after starting the year by eliminating the concept of peaceful unification from his state’s national policy.
Kim said in a visit to the Ministry of Defense to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the army that the "puppets” of South Korea had rebuffed Pyongyang’s efforts for cooperation and were bent on absorbing its neighbor, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday.
Therefore, it was correct to label South Korea as the "primary enemy,” and based on that legality "it can be attacked and destroyed at any time,” KCNA quoted him as saying. Kim’s "respected daughter” joined him on the visit, it said. While North Korea’s regime operates on the whims of Kim, laws provide a formal basis for the state’s operations.
A day earlier, KCNA reported that North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly voted to scrap all agreements with South Korea on promoting economic cooperation, as the two Koreas' ties continue to deteriorate.
The assembly, which takes formal steps to adopt policy decisions of the ruling Workers' Party, also voted to abolish laws governing economic ties with Seoul, including the special law on the operation of the Mount Kumgang tourism project.
The tours to the scenic mountain just north of the eastern border were a symbol of economic cooperation that began during a period of engagement between the two Koreas in early 2000s, drawing nearly 2 million South Korean visitors.
The project was suspended in 2008 after a South Korean tourist who strayed into a restricted zone was shot and killed by North Korean guards.
Hyundai Asan, an affiliate of the Hyundai Group conglomerate that invested more than 750 billion won ($564 million) in developing the Kumgang project, declined to comment on the report.
South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles ties with Pyongyang, said the North's action was not surprising and would only deepen its isolation. Seoul does not recognize the unilateral move, an official added.
The KCNA report did not mention the North's special law governing another major joint economic project, the Kaesong industrial zone, which at its peak housed the factories of 125 South Korean companies employing 55,000 North Korean workers.
The companies pulled out and the factory zone shuttered in 2016 when Seoul suspended the project after the North's fifth nuclear test and long-range ballistic missile launches.
In January, South Korea closed a state-run foundation that supported the development and operation of the Kaesong industrial zone, which at the time was considered a sign that Seoul viewed the project as unlikely to be revived.
Since the start of the year, Kim’s regime has ratcheted up a pressure campaign against South Korea with moves that have included cruise missile tests, threatening language toward Seoul and tearing down a monument in Pyongyang that symbolized the hopes of unification.
The government of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said it believes North Korea will be trying to raise its profile ahead of April elections in the South for parliament. Yoon’s conservative People Power Party, which backs military cooperation with the U.S. and a tough stance toward Pyongyang, is trying to wrest control of the body from the opposition Democratic Party, which favors rapprochement with North Korea.
The North Korean leader has a habit of launching provocations that coincide with elections in South Korea.
Kim, meanwhile, has shown no inclination that he wants to return to stalled nuclear disarmament talks and has rolled out a series of new weapons designed to deliver nuclear strikes on the U.S. and its allies in Asia.
This has led to some speculation that Kim has turned the corner on his bellicose outbursts and is readying for battle. U.S. President Joe Biden has warned Kim that it would mean the end of his regime if he tried to launch a nuclear attack.
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