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.