[News Today] NK CALLS S. KOREA ‘HOSTILE STATE’

[LEAD]
North Korea belatedly reported its demolition of an inter-Korean road two days ago. It cited constitutional mandates, which, following recent amendments, now designate South Korea as a hostile nation.

[REPORT]
A satellite image of an area north of the Gyeongui line which North Korea blew up on October 15th.

The ground impact from the explosion is visible and the difference is clear in the before and after photos. The North Korean media reported on the explosion two days later on October 17th.

North Korea announced that sixty-meter segments of the Gyeongui and the Donghae lines were blown up so that the road and railway connecting to South Korea would be completely severed in order to thoroughly separate the country from the South Korean territory.

North Korea also maintained that the recent explosions were carried out as demanded by the country's constitution which defines South Korea as a thoroughly 'hostile country'.

This indicates that South Korea was designated as a 'thoroughly hostile state' at the Supreme People's Assembly last week when the North Korean constitution was amended.

This is the first time that reports about constitutional amendment were mentioned. But it hasn't been made public whether new articles about territory were included in the constitution as instructed by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un earlier this year.

Hong Min / Korea Institute for National Unification
There's huge ramifications when constitutional articles about sovereign territory are made public, N. Korea couldn't include them or write about them comprehensively.

North Korea warned that it will continue to take measures to permanently fortify the closed southern border.

Also, starting in the afternoon of October 12th, North Korea stopped using on Rodong Sinmun the 'Juche era name' based on 1912, Kim Il-sung's birth year. North Korea's state-controlled newspaper has been using the 'Juche era name' along with A.D. dates in its articles since 1997.

The South Korean Unification Ministry concluded that it's one of the measures North Korea implemented this year to idolize Kim Jong-un among newspaper readers.