Yoon Administration's First Defense White Paper... "North Korea is the Enemy"

Biennial Defense White Paper Defines North Korean Regime and Military as 'Enemy' for the First Time in 6 Years

North Korea's West Sea Coastal Artillery Unit

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The Defense White Paper scheduled for publication in January next year is expected to define the North Korean regime and the North Korean military as ‘enemies.’ This marks the first time in six years that North Korea has been designated as an enemy.

On the 6th, a Ministry of National Defense official stated, "We are considering including the phrase ‘The North Korean regime and the North Korean military are our enemies’ in the draft of the ‘2022 Defense White Paper.’"

The Presidential Transition Committee announced in the ‘110 National Tasks’ released on May 3rd that "We will consider specifying in the Defense White Paper and other documents that ‘the North Korean regime and the North Korean military are our enemies’ to make this clear." Earlier, President Yoon Suk-yeol posted on social network services (SNS) in early January, right after North Korea’s ballistic missile launch, stating "The main enemy is North Korea."

However, this White Paper will not use the term ‘main enemy’ (주적) for North Korea but will instead use the milder term ‘enemy.’ Although the intensity of the expression has increased due to North Korea’s continued military provocations, it is analyzed that room for dialogue between the South and North remains.

The concept of the main enemy in the Defense White Paper has appeared or been removed depending on changes in inter-Korean relations. It was first explicitly stated in 1995, triggered by the North Korean representative’s ‘Seoul will be a sea of fire’ remark during the 1994 inter-Korean special envoy exchange working-level talks. This expression was maintained until 2000, but as a mood of reconciliation developed, it was changed to ‘direct military threat’ starting from the 2004 Defense White Paper. When the Lee Myung-bak administration began in 2008, the phrase ‘direct and serious threat’ was used.

However, following the 2010 Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong Island shelling, the phrase ‘The North Korean regime and the North Korean military are enemies’ reappeared in the White Paper published that year and was maintained until 2016 during the Park Geun-hye administration. During the Moon Jae-in administration, the 2018 and 2020 Defense White Papers removed the designation of North Korea as an enemy and replaced it with the phrase ‘We consider forces that threaten and infringe upon our sovereignty, territory, people, and property as our enemies.’

Within and outside the military, there is an assessment that since the South and North officially designate each other as enemies, the September 19 Military Agreement has effectively been nullified. On the 5th, North Korea conducted artillery fire estimated to be about 130 rounds of multiple rocket launchers into the East and West Sea maritime buffer zones established by the September 19 Military Agreement. The Joint Chiefs of Staff stated, "Artillery fire within the East and West Sea maritime buffer zones is a clear violation of the September 19 Military Agreement," and strongly urged an immediate halt.