Kim tells North Korean soldiers South is 'hostile, foreign' country

Seoul: Kim Jong Un told North Korean soldiers that the South was a foreign country, state media reported Friday, saying Pyongyang had jettisoned any...

Seoul: Kim Jong Un told North Korean soldiers that the South was a "foreign" country, state media reported Friday, saying Pyongyang had jettisoned any idea of reunification.

Despite remaining officially at war, the two Koreas have long defined ties as a "special relationship", not state-to-state relations, with a view to eventual reunification.

But Kim in January defined Seoul as his country's "principal enemy", and on Friday described ties with the South as an "evil relationship" that had ended with the detonation of roads between the two.

After months of laying fresh mines and ramping up security on the border, Pyongyang this week blew up roads and railways linking it to the South, and said its constitution now defined the South as a "hostile" state.

"Our army should keep in mind once again the stark fact that (South Korea) is a foreign country and an apparent hostile country," Kim told the 2nd Corps of the Korean People's Army, state media said.