N. Korea to disband civilian-level exchange organizations with S. Korea

SEOUL, North Korea has announced it will dissolve organizations in charge of civilian exchanges with South Korea, state media reported Saturday, as Pyongyang calls Seoul its “main enemy” to be completely wiped out.

The decision was made during a meeting of “officials in charge of affairs with enemies” on Friday to implement the “switchover in the policy” toward the South as was instructed by leader Kim Jong-un during a key Workers’ Party meeting last month, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

All relevant organizations, including the North Side Committee for Implementing June 15 Joint Declaration, the North Headquarters of the Pan-national Alliance for Korea’s Reunification, the Consultative Council for National Reconciliation and the Council for the Reunification of Tangun’s Nation, will be readjusted, the KCNA said.

The meeting also called for a new reunification policy based on the view that the “South Korean puppets” who have pursued only the collapse of the North’s power and unificati
on by absorption are the “main enemy of the DPRK to be completely wiped out.”

DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The latest move came as the North stepped up provocations after North Korean leader Kim defined inter-Korean ties as relations “between two states hostile to each other” and called for stepped-up preparations to “suppress the whole territory of South Korea” at a year-end ruling party meeting.

During the ninth plenary meeting of the eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, leader Kim called for a “fundamental change in dealing with South Korea and ordered measures for “readjusting and reforming” the organizations in charge of inter-Korean affairs.

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui led discussions early this month to dismantle the United Front Department (UFD) in charge of relations with the South, according to state media.

Relations between South and North Korea remain strained, with tensions sharply escalating last wee
k after Pyongyang fired around 350 rounds of artillery shells in waters off its west coast between Jan. 5 and 7, the first live-fire drills near the sea border since December 2022.

Source: Yonhap News Agency