Rodong Sinmun Monday observes in a commentary in this regard:

This clearly proves that the "policy toward the north" pursued by the present ruling quarters of south Korea is just the same harsh policy of confrontation and policy for a war against the north as those of the preceding regimes.

The commentary goes on:

The puppet authorities of south Korea cited the north's "threat, provocations and escalation of military tension" as pretexts for designating the north as "principal enemy" but they have no qualifications to talk about them.

When looking back on what happened this year, it is the south Korean authorities who seriously threatened the DPRK by staging madcap war exercises in collusion with the U.S. and frantically conducted leaflet scattering operations and kicked up "human rights" racket with human scum involved, escalating the tension on the Korean Peninsula.

They are going busy with their smear campaign against the DPRK and working hard to justify the designation of it as "principal enemy," while shelving their unpardonable crimes. This is the height of shamelessness.

If they designate the DPRK as "principal enemy" in their "defense white paper," this will amount to openly declaring that the "confidence-building process," "Dresden declaration" and the "doctrine of gaining a great opportunity of unification" touted by them are nothing but a scenario for confrontation of the social systems and a declaration of a war against the north.

The Korean people will never overlook their move as it is a deliberate provocation chilling again the enthusiasm of all Koreans for national unity and independent reunification and further bedeviling the north-south relations.