By Jung Sung-ki

This year’s defense white paper will not describe North Korea as the “main enemy” despite the sinking of the frigate Cheonan in March, an official at the Ministry of National Defense said Monday.

But the biennial defense report will depict the North as posing a grave threat to the security of the South, the official said.

The white paper, which is due out in October, would mark a contrast to last year’s paper, in which North Korea was described as a “direct and serious threat.”

A 1995 defense white paper had described the North as the main enemy for the first time after the communist state threatened to turn Seoul into a “sea of flames” in military talks.

But the description was deleted in 2004 when former President Roh Moo-hyun was trying to engage the North.

After the Cheonan was allegedly sunk by a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine, calls have grown here that the North should be categorized as the main enemy in the paper.