Pyongyang considers Seoul to be its “most harmful and unchangeable enemy,” the leader has said

Pyongyang must be prepared to seize South Korean territory in the event of an “emergency,” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said.

In a speech marking the 76th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean Army on Friday, Kim praised the military for “firmly protecting the sovereignty and dignity of the country” from “imperialist military threats, blackmail, and the risk of war.”

[Kim] said his country has “summarized the history of our people’s division and confrontation and defined [South] Korean puppets as the most harmful and unchangeable enemy” of Pyongyang.

Against this backdrop, Kim stated that in the event of an “emergency,” North Korean policymakers had “made a national decision to occupy and pacify [South Korean] territory.”

Last month, Kim also called on the national parliament to label South Korea the “number one hostile country.”

[…]

Citing US officials, the New York Times reported in January that Washington is worried that North Korea could “take some form of lethal military action” against Seoul. The paper’s sources, however, doubted that Pyongyang would risk anything resembling a full-scale attack.

(non-archived link: https://www.rt.com/news/592193-north-korea-ready-occupy-south/ )

  • Big_Bob [any]@hexbear.net
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    9 months ago

    Unquestionable support for DPRK and its heroic struggle, but I wonder how Best Korea will handle taking over a country where Mccarthyism never ended.

    Take the Russian war for example: the regions the Russians are going to annex will be easy for the locals to adjust to, since east Ukrainians are generally more russian-leaning than their westaboo nazis worshippers in Western Ukraine.

    South Koreans are force-fed scaremongering propaganda about communism and their northern brothers from birth.

    DPRK can absolutely take over SK, but the real challenge for them will be in actually holding the territory of a people who’s trained from birth to fear and hate the DPRK.

    • kot [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      9 months ago

      South Korea was a brutal right wing dictatorship until somewhat recently, so maybe their views are a bit different. They also have some pretty awful labor laws to this day, even by capitalist standards. I don’t know what they actually think about the DPRK though, but their experience with capitalism is not at all like the US or Ukraine.

      • CicadaSpectre@lemmygrad.ml
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        9 months ago

        Having talked to a few South Koreans who live or frequent the US, the general consensus I’ve gotten is that they think the conflict is caused by external countries trying to manipulate them (US, Japan, and China), and that if they were left to their own devices, they’d reunify in time. Of course, they also think North Koreans worship the Kims as gods.

        This is a really small number of people I’ve talked to, I’ve talked to them in the US where I assume they spend most of their time, but it seems to align with the takes I’ve seen in South Korean media that’s critical about South Korea: disenchantment and even contempt for the ROK government and US occupation, but also a view that the DPRK is cultish and China is just another US. This is purely anecdotal, so take it with a heap of salt.

    • olgas_husband@lemmygrad.ml
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      9 months ago

      well, they managed in germany, so the koreans are more than capable of doing it too. specially when the conditions in sk are so bad, no anti-communism can withstand full employment and free housing.

    • cayde6ml@lemmygrad.ml
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      9 months ago

      From what I read, around 80 percent of South Koreans support Kim Jong-Un, but in a liberation war, I could see those numbers turn.