Kim calls South Korea a principal enemy as his rhetoric sharpens in a US election year

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called South Korea “our principal enemy” and threatened to annihilate it if provoked, as he escalates his inflammatory, belligerent rhetoric against Seoul and the United States before their elections this year.

Experts say Kim will likely further raise animosities with weapons tests to try to influence the results of South Korea’s parliamentary elections in April and the U.S. presidential election in November.

Kim made the remarks during inspection tours of munitions factories in North Korea this week, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday.

He said North Korea's priority in its relations with Seoul "is to bolster up the military capabilities for self-defense and the nuclear war deterrent first of all,” KCNA said.