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By John Feng
China Editor
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un repeated his readiness to use unconditional force against the South in self-defense, state media said on Friday, in the first such remarks since ordering the demolition of roads and railways at the inter-Korean border earlier this week.
If North Korean sovereignty is violated by the South, "its physical forces will be used unhesitatingly, without sticking to conditions any longer," Kim said during a visit to the 2nd Corps of the Korean People's Army the previous day. This was according to a report by the official Korean Central News Agency.
"As we have already declared, if our offensive forces are used in the precondition of 'if,' it constitutes legitimate retaliatory action against the hostile country, not the fellow countrymen," Kim was quoted as saying.
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His description of South Korea as a "foreign country" and a "hostile country" appeared to confirm Pyongyang's official move away from the decades-long "special relationship" with Seoul, in which both sides were considered partners for reconciliation rather than neighboring sovereign states.
North Korea's supreme leader said the decision to blow up roads and railways leading to the South this week meant "not only the physical closure but also the end of the evil relationship with Seoul … and the complete removal of the useless awareness about fellow countrymen and unreasonable idea of reunification."
Analysts say the explosive work near the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone—a 2.5-mile buffer area north and south of the official Military Demarcation Line—was largely symbolic. However, North Korea continues to signal that it is preparing for a hot war on the peninsula.
Photographs published by KCNA showed Kim inspecting a blurred map of the two Koreas, on which the DMZ and South Korean capital Seoul were marked. The state news agency said Kim examined important documents including the unit's "military action plans."
North Korea's embassy in Beijing did not immediately return a request by Newsweek for comment.
In a separate statement carried by KCNA, Kim's powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, again urged the South Korean government to investigate a recent alleged drone incursion over Pyongyang. Over the weekend, the North Korean army said it had ordered artillery units to be "ready to open fire" in response.
"Explicitly speaking once again, we are clearly aware that the ROK has severely violated our sovereignty," she said, referring to the Republic of Korea, the South's official name. The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul this week rejected calls to investigate the matter.
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Also on Friday, President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea convened an emergency national security meeting to discuss possible responses to North Korea's alleged dispatch of troops to Russia. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that 10,000 North Korean soldiers were training to fight alongside Russians in the ongoing invasion.
In Brussels on Thursday, however, Kim Seon-ho, South Korea's vice defense minister, told the Yonhap News Agency that it was possible the North had sent technical personnel rather than military forces, and that further verification was needed.
In June, Kim Jong Un and President Vladimir Putin of Russia signed a pact of mutual military support in the event of an armed attack against either party.
Matthew Miller, U.S. State Department spokesperson, said this week the United States had "great concerns about the growing security relationship between Russia and North Korea," but declined to say whether U.S. intelligence could corroborate Kyiv's claim of North Korean boots on the ground in Ukraine.
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