Photo/Illutration North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accompanied by his daughter Kim Ju Ae, visits a military vehicle production plant, in this picture released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 5, 2024. (KCNA via REUTERS)

SEOUL--North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called South Korea “our principal enemy” and threatened to annihilate it if provoked, as he escalates his inflammatory, belligerent rhetoric against Seoul and the United States before their elections this year.

Experts say Kim will likely further raise animosities with weapons tests to try to influence the results of South Korea’s parliamentary elections in April and the U.S. presidential election in November.

Kim made the remarks during inspection tours of munitions factories in North Korea this week, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday.

He said North Korea’s priority in its relations with Seoul “is to bolster up the military capabilities for self-defense and the nuclear war deterrent first of all,” KCNA said.

If South Korea dares to use his military force against North Korea and threaten its sovereignty, Kim said “We will have no hesitation in annihilating (South Korea) by mobilizing all means and forces in our hands,” according to KCNA.

He has made similar such threats recently, and analysts say Kim likely hopes South Korean liberals seeking reconciliation with North Korea win the April elections. They believe Kim also thinks he can win U.S. concessions if former President Donald Trump returns to the White House. Kim and Trump met three times as part of high-stakes nuclear diplomacy in 2018-19.

Some observers say possible North Korean provocations could trigger accidental, limited armed clashes between the two Koreas along their heavily armed border.

Last Friday, North Korea fired artillery shells near the disputed western sea boundary with South Korea, prompting South Korea to stage its own firing drills in the same area in response. South Korea accused North Korea of having continued artillery firing drills in the area on Saturday and Sunday, but the North insisted it only performed such drills on Sunday.

Three bloody naval skirmishes between the Koreas have occurred along the disputed sea boundary since 1999 and two attacks blamed on North Korea killed 50 South Koreans in the area in 2010. Military firing exercises in the area violate the Koreas’ fragile 2018 agreement to ease front-line tensions.

Kim’s visit to munitions factories could also be related to North Korea’s alleged supply of conventional arms to Russia to support its war in Ukraine in return to sophisticated Russian weapons technologies. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said last Thursday that recently declassified intelligence showed that North Korea had provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several ballistic missiles as well.

In a joint statement released Wednesday, the top diplomats of 48 countries including South Korea, the U.S. and Japan and the European Union said Russia used North Korean missiles against Ukraine on Dec. 30 and Jan. 2.

“The transfer of these weapons increases the suffering of the Ukrainian people, supports Russia’s war of aggression, and undermines the global non-proliferation regime,” the statement said.

“Russia’s use of (North Korean) ballistic missiles in Ukraine also provides valuable technical and military insights to (North Korea),” it said. “We are deeply concerned about the security implications that this cooperation has in Europe, on the Korean Peninsula, across the Indo-Pacific region, and around the world.”

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