North Korea calls South Korea ‘No. 1 hostile country’ at indoctrination center

A major indoctrination facility in North Korea displayed banners calling South Korea the "No. 1 hostile country" and inciting public animosity against Seoul, photos released by the North's media showed Monday.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published the photos while reporting on North Koreans touring the Central Class Education House in Pyongyang as part of celebrations marking the 80th founding anniversary of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, the country's largest youth organization, which were held Saturday.

The KCNA photos showed rows of uniformed soldiers listening to a guide in a hall displaying banners, photos and painted messages against South Korea.

The banners read, "South Korea is the No. 1 hostile country and the unchanging archenemy," and accused Seoul of creating a "confrontational frenzy" aimed at upending North Korea and "ending the regime."

The messages included an article of South Korea's Constitution defining the country's territory as the entire Korean Peninsula, in what appears to be an accusation that Seoul intends to unify the North by absorption.

In a parliamentary address in September last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un denounced the constitutional article as codifying what he called "the most hostile true color by nature."

Kim also stated in his speech at the Supreme People's Assembly in January last year that the constitution should include a provision stating that "education programs must be strengthened to ensure that the Republic of Korea is thoroughly regarded as the number one hostile state and the unchanging main enemy."

The Central Class Education House, one of North Korea's major class education centers, opened in 2016 on the banks of the Pothong River in Pyongyang. It exhibits various materials that foster a sense of confrontation with so-called hostile forces, such as South Korea, the United States, and Japan, and conducts ideological education for residents.

At a year-end party meeting in December 2023, Kim declared inter-Korean relations as those between "two states hostile to each other" and has since pursued unfriendly policies toward Seoul, including a pledge during a parliamentary speech in 2024 to strengthen education aimed at getting the public to regard the South as the No. 1 hostile country and archenemy of the North.

The North Korean authorities' installation of signs designating South Korea as the No. 1 enemy in such locations and their efforts to attract young people to view them can be interpreted as an attempt to solidify the perception of "two hostile nations" throughout the local community.