Pyongyang considers Seoul to be its “most harmful and unchangeable enemy,” the leader has said
Pyongyang must be prepared to seize South Korean territory in the event of an “emergency,” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said.
In a speech marking the 76th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean Army on Friday, Kim praised the military for “firmly protecting the sovereignty and dignity of the country” from “imperialist military threats, blackmail, and the risk of war.”
[Kim] said his country has “summarized the history of our people’s division and confrontation and defined [South] Korean puppets as the most harmful and unchangeable enemy” of Pyongyang.
Against this backdrop, Kim stated that in the event of an “emergency,” North Korean policymakers had “made a national decision to occupy and pacify [South Korean] territory.”
Last month, Kim also called on the national parliament to label South Korea the “number one hostile country.”
[...]
Citing US officials, the New York Times reported in January that Washington is worried that North Korea could “take some form of lethal military action” against Seoul. The paper’s sources, however, doubted that Pyongyang would risk anything resembling a full-scale attack.
(non-archived link: https://www.rt.com/news/592193-north-korea-ready-occupy-south/ )
So far this decade seems to be defined by Western empire maneuvering and provoking its victims to "attack first." We saw it with Russia and we saw it with the Palestinian resistance.
Once a critical mass is reached and the power disparity between the empire and the global south has flipped sufficiently in favor of the latter, it doesn't matter who is perceived as the aggressor by those still under the influence of the imperialist media's propaganda. I believe that Russia's launching of their military operation demonstrates that we have already reached and passed that point. Russia's bold move has opened the flood gates for others in the global resistance to strike blows at the empire and its proxies, but it was essential that someone make the first step to break the illusion of imperial untouchability and invincibility in the same vein as the Palestinian resistance shattered the illusions around the necolonial occupation's viability. Now it is up to each actor in the broader anti-imperialist camp when and how to open their own front against the empire, but imo events are developing such that it is inevitably going to happen at some point. If they don't the empire will force their hand anyway because it still delusionally overestimates its own strength. It's just a matter of time.