South Korea calls North Korea an ‘enemy’ in its defense white paper

`As North Korea continues to pose military threats without giving up its nuclear weapons, the government and military of this country, those implementing that policy, are our enemies,` the national white paper said.

This is the first time South Korea has used the word `enemy` to describe North Korea in a defense white paper since 2016.

According to this document, to strengthen its nuclear material stockpile, North Korea continues to reprocess spent fuel from the reactor and possesses about 70 kg of weapons-grade plutonium, an increase of 20 kg compared to estimates.

North Korea also secured `significant amounts of highly enriched uranium` and `significant capacity` to shrink warhead sizes after six nuclear tests.

`Our military is increasing surveillance because the possibility of North Korea continuing its nuclear testing is increasing,` the document said.

North Korea test-fired the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile on November 17, 2022.

According to South Korea’s new defense white paper, North Korea carried out 15 hostile actions last year, violating the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement. The actions listed include deploying invasive drones

In its 2020 defense white paper, South Korea said North Korea `generally` complies with the agreement, signed on the sidelines of a 2018 summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and then-South Korean president

The latest document documents Pyongyang’s 2022 intercontinental ballistic missile launches, including the newly tested Hwasong-17 missile, but says further analysis is needed to determine whether Pyongyang has

Technically, South Korea and North Korea are still at war, because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty.

Leader Kim Jong-un last year declared North Korea an `irreversible` nuclear state and conducts weapons tests almost every month, including launching intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said that South Korea’s defense white paper identifying Pyongyang as an `enemy` shows that the state of inter-Korean relations is `full of confrontation,

The defense white paper is published every two years by South Korea.

Under President Moon Jae-in, this phrase is no longer used.