Mick Hartley

From the Daily NK:

A North Korean university in Wonsan, Kangwon province, held a mandatory ideological lecture on Feb. 1 instructing faculty and students to view South Korea as an enemy state, ahead of the upcoming Ninth Party Congress.

The Kangwon provincial party committee ordered the lectures at the end of January, directing institutions to prioritize sessions on “hostile relations with South Korea” and the supposed triumph of Pyongyang’s strategy against Washington and Seoul. A source in the province, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told Daily NK recently that Wonsan Medical University held the session for faculty and students in its auditorium.

During the lecture, the university’s party secretary raised the recent visit to South Korea by U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby. Regarded as the architect of the Trump administration’s security policy, Colby was in Seoul on Jan. 25–27 to present the updated U.S. National Defense Strategy and seek Seoul’s cooperation with American plans.

The party secretary offered the following commentary on the visit: “The other day, the head of the U.S. Department of Defense flew into South Korea with a cocky attitude and made asinine comments about changes to the 2026 defense strategy. At a time when anyone who challenges our Republic ends up humiliated and led around by the nose, the American imperialists have been like moths to a flame since the beginning of the year. They are basically raising the white flag now that our Republic’s nuclear arsenal is complete.”

The secretary then turned to South Korea directly. “South Korea is no longer part of our nation — it’s our number-one enemy, a state that we must pacify through force of arms. Despite the brief pause in its war with us, South Korea remains a belligerent state,” the party secretary said.

“A state that we must pacify through force of arms.” Hmm.