South Korea calls North Korea 'enemy' in latest defense white paper

South Korea on Thursday called its neighbor North Korea an enemy for the first time in six years, citing its government and military as reasons for posing a threat without renouncing its nuclear program, local media said.

In a Defense Ministry biennial white paper, Seoul referred to the North Korean government and its army as an “enemy” and described Japan as a "close neighbor" for the first time since 2018, Yonhap News Agency reported.

"As the North defined us as an 'undoubted enemy' at the plenary meeting of the ruling party's Central Committee in December 2022, and continues to pose a military threat without renouncing its nuclear program, the North Korean regime and military – the executor of that (threat) – are our enemy," the white paper reads, according to the news agency.