The ministry took the measure in order to smooth ruffled feathers in Pyongyang as well as parts of South Korean society, allowing it to resume publication of the white paper, which had stalled since 2000 due to disputes over the designation. In intra-Korean meetings since the June 2000 summit, North Korea has persistently asked for the "main enemy" terminology to be scrapped.

In a press release, the Defense Ministry said it decided to make the change since no other nation in the world designated anyone “the enemy” and because Pyongyang was also restraining itself from using a directly hostile term for the South.

But the ministry added that even if the terminology changed, the concept remained the same. Textbooks for soldiers and other internal Defense Ministry documents would continue to use the term "enemy."

Current military textbooks say, "The North Korean regime and North Korean military that obeys it are the core enemies that have been continuously threatening our existence and prosperity... The North Korean military, North Korea's reserve fighting strength, the Korean Workers Party and North Korean government institutions are the enemy of the military of the ROK."

One Army field officer said, "Because of the atmosphere of intra-Korean reconciliation and cooperation, it has become difficult to give our soldiers psychological training, and it will get even tougher in the future."

The term "main enemy" was first used in the 1995 defense white paper after the deepening North Korean nuclear crisis and a March 1994 threat to turn Seoul into a "sea of fire" made by a North Korean negotiator during intra-Korean contacts in Panmunjeom. The term stayed in continuous use until 2000.

(Yu Yong-won, bemil@chosun.com )