Making South Korea the Main Enemy, North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un: We Don't Want War, But We Will Not Avoid It

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a speech at the Supreme People's Assembly. (Source: KCNA)

JAKARTA - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Monday called for the constitution to be changed to ensure South Korea is seen as the main enemy, warning his country would not avoid war if that happened, state media reported Tuesday.

Addressing the Supreme People's Assembly, Leader Kim said he had concluded unification with South Korea was no longer possible, accusing Seoul of seeking to undermine the regime and achieve unification through absorption.

Leader Kim said the constitution should be amended to educate North Koreans that South Korea is the "main enemy" and define North Korean territory as separate from South Korea.

"We don't want war but we have no intention of avoiding it," said Leader Kim as reported by Reuters from KCNA, Tuesday, January 16.

North Korea should also plan to "occupy, subjugate and retake South Korea in the event of war, and South Koreans should no longer be referred to as compatriots," added Leader Kim, while calling for a severance of all inter-Korean communications for the destruction of the reunification monument in Pyongyang.

Three organizations dealing with inter-Korean unification and tourism will also be closed, state media added.

The Pyongyang leader's latest call comes as tensions have worsened on the Korean Peninsula recently, amid a series of missile tests and a push by North Korea to abandon decades-long policies and change its relationship with South Korea.

Separately, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said at a cabinet meeting that Pyongyang was being "anti-national" because it called South Korea a hostile country.