North Korea Halts Economic Cooperation with South Korea

(Patria) - The Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea has voted to abolish all agreements promoting economic cooperation signed with South Korea.

The decision was approved during the 30th plenary meeting of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's parliament.

The decree includes the repeal of laws on economic cooperation, including the special law on the operation of the Mount Kumgang tourism project.

Visits to this mountain were a symbol of the beginning of economic cooperation between the two Koreas in the early 2000s and attracted nearly two million visitors from South Korea.

Pyongyang's move followed Seoul's declaration of it as a "primary enemy" amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un proposed last month that Pyongyang redefine relations with Seoul.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reiterated that he has no desire for diplomacy with South Korea and would destroy his rival if provoked, state media reported this morning.

During a visit to North Korea's Ministry of Defense on Thursday, Kim said his recent moves to sever ties with South Korea allow his military to take a more aggressive stance, "ensuring the legality to attack and destroy (South Korea) whenever it is initiated," AP reported.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Kim said he took the initiative to "shake off the unrealistic pretense of dialogue and cooperation with the (South) Korean puppets who sought the collapse of our republic." The agency said Kim was accompanied during the visit to the ministry by his daughter, believed to be named Kim Ju Ae, whom some experts believe is being groomed as a future leader.

Kim Jong Un's statements came several weeks after he declared in parliament that North Korea was abandoning its long-standing goal of peaceful reunification with South Korea and ordered a revision of the constitution to designate South Korea as the most hostile foreign adversary.

Pyongyang has since closed government departments dealing with affairs with Seoul, demolished a large unification monument, and repealed laws regulating past economic projects with the South.

In a pre-recorded interview aired on Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol described Kim's government as "irrational" actors further burdening North Korea's devastated economy by aggressively expanding its collection of nuclear weapons and missiles.

"We must keep this in mind as we prepare to counter their security threats or provocations, preparing not only for actions based on rational judgments but also for actions based on irrational conclusions," Yoon said.