North Korea’s law change raises threat of nuclear war as it declares South its ‘top enemy’

The North’s bid to enshrine its own border in the Yellow Sea and codify a commitment to invade the South shows ties ‘have reached an almost irreparable breakdown’

The planned constitutional changes come as some US experts warn Kim’s latest threats to start a war may be more than ‘typical bluster’

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North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un watches an ICBM missile test at an undisclosed location on December 18. Photo: KCNA/KNS/dpa

Published: 2:43pm, 16 Jan 2024Updated: 4:08pm, 16 Jan 2024

North Korea’s move to revise the constitution to reject a maritime border drawn by the South greatly raises the risk of armed clashes in the Yellow Sea, analysts said, as ties on the peninsula show signs of reaching an “almost irreparable breakdown”.

At a key parliamentary meeting on Monday, leader Kim Jong-un called for constitutional changes to define the South as its “principal enemy” and to codify a commitment to “completely occupy” its rival in the event of war, state media reported on Tuesday.

“The illegal ‘Northern Limit Line’ and any other boundary can never be tolerated, and if the ROK (South Korea) violates even 0.001mm of our territorial land, air and waters, it will be considered a war provocation,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) also quoted Kim as saying.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un speaks at the 10th session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang on January 15. Photo: KCNA via KNS/AFP

In response, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol threatened to punish the North “multiple times as hard” if it carried out its provocation, he said in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

North Korea’s pledged constitutional changes mark a clear break with the past, when its revered founder Kim Il-sung, the current leader’s grandfather, defined the South as an object for reconciliation and peaceful reunification under the “one nation, one state and two regimes” policy, observers said.

“The fact that Kim has officially declared he has abandoned his ancestors’ unification policy suggests that inter-Korean relations have reached an almost irreparable breakdown,” Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, told This Week in Asia.

“I am worried that Kim’s direction to change the constitution to ignore the NLL would seriously raise the risks of armed clashes in the Yellow Sea,” he added.