Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- South Korea declared North Korea’s regime and military its enemy after the communist country’s deadly shelling of a border island last month that killed four people, including two civilians.
South Korea stopped short of calling North Korea its “main enemy” in a defense white paper to be published tomorrow, the defense ministry said in a statement on its website. The term main enemy was dropped in 2004 under South Korea’s “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with North Korea.
President Lee Myung Bak has taken a tougher approach to North Korea since coming to power in 2008 and in the wake of the deadly Nov. 23 shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. Lee named Kim Kwan Jin as his new defense minister just three days after the artillery barrage and has pledged to strengthen the military.
South Korea is “delivering a strong and clear warning to the North” and will label the regime and its military as an enemy as long as it threatens the nation’s security, according to the statement.
North Korea on Dec. 23 threatened to wage a “sacred war” using nuclear weapons if attacked after South Korea held military drills near its border. The North may conduct a third nuclear test next year as it needs to refine its plutonium bomb, South Korea’s state-run Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security said in a report posted on its website on Dec. 24.
North Korea last month attacked the fishing community and military outpost of Yeonpyeong in the first shelling of South Korean soil since the 1950-1953 war. North Korea said it was responding to a military provocation after the South fired into waters it claims as its own.
North Korea was also responsible for the March sinking of the South Korea warship Cheonan, which claimed the lives of 46 sailors, according to an international investigation.
