The ministry said it is "not true" that it is reviewing whether to change its stance in line with the Lee Jae Myung administration's efforts to engage the North.
The defense white paper, published every two years, outlines the government's defense policy. The most recent edition, released in 2023 under disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol, defined the North Korean regime as an "enemy."
The upcoming edition, delayed due to Yoon's botched Dec. 3 declaration of martial law in 2024, is due out later this year, and there has been speculation that referring to it as "enemy" might be dropped.
Whether North Korea is labeled an "enemy" or a "main enemy" in the white paper has long been understood to reflect the government’s posture toward the North, as it has tended to appear under conservative administrations and be dropped under progressive ones.
It was first included in the defense white paper in 1995 after North Korea's belligerent remarks about turning Seoul into a "sea of fire."
The term remained through 2000, but was replaced in 2004 with phrases such as "direct military threat." It reappeared in 2010 following the sinking of the corvette Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island by the North. However, it was dropped again after former President Moon Jae-in took office, before reappearing some six years later in 2022.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Unification struck a slightly different tone. A ministry official told reporters at the government complex in Seoul that the Lee administration's key goals in inter-Korean relations are "peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula," adding that it is difficult to pursue that while still calling North Korea the main enemy.
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