Pyongyang considers Seoul to be its “most harmful and unchangeable enemy,” the leader has said
Pyongyang must be prepared to seize South Korean territory in the event of an “emergency,” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said.
In a speech marking the 76th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean Army on Friday, Kim praised the military for “firmly protecting the sovereignty and dignity of the country” from “imperialist military threats, blackmail, and the risk of war.”
[Kim] said his country has “summarized the history of our people’s division and confrontation and defined [South] Korean puppets as the most harmful and unchangeable enemy” of Pyongyang.
Against this backdrop, Kim stated that in the event of an “emergency,” North Korean policymakers had “made a national decision to occupy and pacify [South Korean] territory.”
Last month, Kim also called on the national parliament to label South Korea the “number one hostile country.”
[…]
Citing US officials, the New York Times reported in January that Washington is worried that North Korea could “take some form of lethal military action” against Seoul. The paper’s sources, however, doubted that Pyongyang would risk anything resembling a full-scale attack.
(non-archived link: https://www.rt.com/news/592193-north-korea-ready-occupy-south/ )
Kim’s right on all fronts but one, yet it’s still sad that North Korea’s abandoning one country two systems solution.
The part I think he’s wrong is where South Korea is an “unchangeable enemy.” South Korea the state’s richer than ever yet Occupied Koreans feel poorer than ever. Their major media output’s either about the impossibility of the capitalist system or a fairy tale about marrying a rich capitalist to escape their material conditions. I’m sure that watching Chinese people (and hopefully North Koreans) actually get wealthier as a whole will wake them up, especially since South Korea will still be richer on paper.
All of this is true of the United States and the wider West but all I see is a doubling down on Sinophobia and white supremacism.
I want you to be right so much, but I just don’t see it.
South Koreans generally don’t have an issue with their northern siblings, but they hate China, Japan, and to a lesser extent, the USA.
North Korea uses really over-the-top language as their default setting. In practice the regime is very practical and would turn their description on a dime if the conditions warranted it IMO.