North Korea abolishes agencies working on reunification with South Korea

(Patria) - North Korea is formally abolishing several key government agencies tasked with promoting cooperation and reunification with the South, state media reported on Tuesday, citing AFP.

The decision was announced by the North Korean parliament, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, and comes just weeks after the nation's leader Kim Jong Un declared that pursuing reconciliation with South Korea was a "mistake".

Inter-Korean relations have soured this year, with Pyongyang's launch of a spy satellite prompting Seoul to partially suspend a 2018 military agreement aimed at easing tensions.

Branding South Korea as the "main enemy", Kim recently stated that efforts to reconcile and reunify with the northern rival were a "mistake we should no longer make".

In their constitutions, both North and South Korea claim sovereignty over the entire peninsula.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea were founded 75 years ago, but each still technically considers the other an illegal entity. Until now, what were considered their diplomatic relations were handled by Seoul's Unification Ministry and Pyongyang's Committee for Peaceful Reunification, one of the agencies now abolished by the Supreme People's Assembly.

"The two most hostile states, which are at war, are now in acute confrontation on the Korean peninsula," said the decision adopted by the assembly, KCNA reported.

"Korean reunification can never be achieved with the Republic of Korea," it added.