South Korea released its 2022 Defense White Paper on Thursday, and it takes a sharp U-Turn from the previous Moon Jae-in administration’s dovish approach to North Korea.

As widely predicted, the new white paper defines North Korea’s regime and armed forces as South Korea’s enemy, undoing the previous government’s removal of the line from the 2018 white paper.

The new report justifies the revision by pointing to Pyongyang’s own branding of Seoul as its “clear enemy” in December and notes that the DPRK expressed its intention to “communize the entire Korean Peninsula.” 

The new white paper also