The official press agency of the DPRK stated, “This is an inevitable and legitimate measure taken in keeping with the requirement of the DPRK Constitution, which clearly defines the ROK as a hostile state.”
For the first time this year, Pyongyang has acknowledged legislative amendments demanded by leader Kim Jong-un, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) has declared that the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea) is now considered a “hostile” state under the terms of the country’s constitution.
As “an inevitable and legitimate measure taken in keeping with the requirement of the DPRK Constitution, which clearly defines the ROK as a hostile state,” the nation demolished highways and railroads connecting it to the South this week, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
“A measure to physically cut off the DPRK’s roads and railways which lead to the ROK” was implemented, according to KCNA on Thursday.
It was “part of the phased complete separation of its territory, where its sovereignty is exercised, from the ROK’s territory” .
The main roads and railroads connecting the two Koreas, according to North Korea, have “been completely blocked through blasting.”
“This is an inevitable and legitimate measure taken in keeping with the requirement of the DPRK Constitution, which clearly defines the ROK as a hostile state,” it stated.
This is the first official indication that the country’s fundamental law was changed in accordance with Kim’s requests. The North conducted a significant assembly of its parliament last week.
“Particular connection” to the “primary adversary”
Prior to this, contacts between the North and South were characterized as a “special relationship” as part of a process aiming at eventual reunification, rather than as state-to-state interactions, under an inter-Korean agreement from 1991.
In an address in January, Kim advocated for a constitutional amendment and warned to go to war if the South violated “even 0.001 mm of our territorial land, air, and waters.”
Following Kim’s declaration in January that Seoul was his nation’s “principal enemy” and that they were no longer interested in reunification, relations between the two Koreas are at an all-time low.
