North Korea labels South Korea as a hostile state

North Korea on Thursday announced that its constitution now describes the South as a hostile state, making it the first time Pyongyang is confirming legal changes by the country’s leader Kim Jong Un earlier this year.

Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated since Kim in January defined Seoul as his country’s principal enemy stating that the North was no longer interested in reunification.

This is coming after months of laying fresh mines and ramping up security on the border, the country this week blew up roads and railways linking it to the South, calling it “an inevitable and legitimate measure.

Meanwhile the country last week held a key meeting of its rubber-stamp parliament, where experts had widely expected the constitution to be revised after Kim’s explicit call for it in January.