Kim calls North and South 'two hostile countries in state of war'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for three more satellite launches in 2024 and referred to the two Koreas as “two hostile countries in a state of war” as he wrapped up a key political meeting, Pyongyang’s state media reported Sunday.

In this photo released by the North's Korean Central News Agency on Sunday, leader Kim Jong-un attends the plenary session of the ruling Workers' Party Central Committee on Saturday in Pyongyang. [NEWS1]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for three more satellite launches in 2024 and referred to the two Koreas as “two hostile countries in a state of war” as he wrapped up a key political meeting over the weekend, Pyongyang’s state media reported Sunday.

Kim’s comments on Saturday — the final day of the week-long plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party — not only offered little prospect for an improvement in inter-Korean relations in the new year but marked a break in the North’s usual description of South Korea as part of the same but divided nation.

In a sign that tensions could escalate further on the Korean Peninsula, Kim announced the regime’s goal to launch three more satellites into orbit next year, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“Based on the experience of successfully launching and operating the first spy satellite in 2023 in the space development sector, the task of launching three more spy satellites in 2024 was unveiled and all-out measures to spur the development of the space science technology were discussed,” the KCNA said.

The North successfully launched a military spy satellite named Malligyong-1 into orbit on Nov. 21, which the South responded to by partially suspending the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement designed to reduce tensions along the inter-Korean border.

The North, in turn, declared its complete withdrawal from the pact.

The North’s successful launch of the spy satellite came after two failed attempts in May and August and a rare summit in September between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who pledged support for the North’s space program.

South Korean and U.S. intelligence have detected regular shipments from the North to Russia since October, fueling suspicions that Moscow aided Pyongyang with its satellite program in return for weapons needed to sustain its invasion of Ukraine.

Kim also said it is “no longer appropriate” to discuss reunification with “a colonial pawn of the United States” in reference to South Korea, with which he said his regime “shares not a fraternal relationship, but rather enmity as exists between countries in a state of conflict,” according to the KCNA.

Hong Min, a senior research fellow at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), said Kim’s redefinition of the South as a “hostile country” indicates the North’s willingness to use nuclear weapons against South Korea.

“If North Korea views inter-Korean relations as ties between the same people, it would be self-contradictory for Pyongyang to use nuclear arms against South Korea,” he said, adding that the North “is defining inter-Korean ties as a state-to-state relationship to justify its push to advance nuclear and missile programs and potentially use these weapons against the South.”

Kim also called for a “fundamental” shift in Pyongyang’s approach to Seoul, arguing the North “should no longer make the mistake” of treating South Korea as a “counterpart for reconciliation” while it considers the North as its “main enemy” and “schemes with outside forces in search of opportunities to bring about ‘regime collapse’ and ‘unification by absorption.’”

The South Korean Defense Ministry returned to calling the North Korean regime and military as the “enemy” in its February white paper after eschewing the term for six years.

But the ministry attributed the change to Kim’s characterization of the South as its “undoubted enemy” at the plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party in December 2022 and for “continuing to pose a military threat without renouncing its nuclear program.”

Kim implied he would not seek better inter-Korean relations even if liberals came to power in the South, faulting all administrations in Seoul for sticking to the “slogan” of “unification under a liberal democracy.”

“Whether they wear the mask of ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative,’ the [South Korean] puppets unwaveringly harbor the monstrous desire to see the collapse of our system and government,” he said.

The North Korean leader further said that it was “undeniable” that “two states that are most hostile [to one another] exist side by side on the Korean Peninsula” and warned that “even a small accidental clash could expand into war.”

The North Korean leader said his regime “needs to swiftly respond to a possible nuclear crisis and mobilize all physical means, including nuclear force, in a bid to accelerate preparations for the great event of putting the entire territory of South Korea under our control.”

State media also reported on Sunday that North Korean Marshal Pak Jong-chon was named the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party, returning him to the second-highest position in the regime’s military after Kim.

Pak was removed from the post on Jan. 1 this year but returned to public view in August as he accompanied Kim on a visit to a weapons factory.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]