North Korea says constitution now defines South as 'hostile' state

Seoul: North Korea said Thursday that its constitution now defines the South as a "hostile" state, the first time Pyongyang has confirmed legal changes called for by leader Kim Jong Un earlier this year.

Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated since Kim in January defined Seoul as his country's "principal enemy" and said the North was no longer interested in reunification.

After months of laying fresh mines and ramping up security on the border, the country this week blew up roads and railways linking it to the South, calling it "an inevitable and legitimate measure", the official Korean Central News Agency said.

The move was "taken in keeping with the requirement of the DPRK Constitution, which clearly defines the ROK (South Korea) as a hostile state," KCNA said, the first time the North has mentioned a revision of its basic law.

The country last week held a key meeting of its rubber-stamp parliament, where experts had widely expected the constitution to be revised after Kim's explicit call for it in January.

Under a 1991 inter-Korean accord, relations between the North and South had been defined as a "special relationship" rather than state-to-state relations, part of a process aimed at eventual reunification.

South Korea's military on Tuesday released video footage of North Korean soldiers dynamiting deeply symbolic roads and railways connecting the two Koreas, days after Pyongyang's military had vowed to "permanently" seal the border with the South.

KCNA said move was "part of the phased complete separation of (North Korea's) territory, where its sovereignty is exercised, from the ROK's territory," using the acronym of South Korea's official name.

North Korea said that sections of the key inter-Korean roads and railways had "been completely blocked through blasting".

South Korea's defence ministry dismissed the idea that the move was a "legitimate" measure as a "one-sided assertion" from Pyongyang.