South Korea has decided to continue to define North Korea as "enemy" in its biennial white paper report to be released next week, Seoul's defense ministry said Tuesday.

"North Korea has posed serious threats to our security by launching military provocations continuously ... As long as such threats exist, we cannot but define the North Korean regime and its military as our enemy," defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a regular briefing.

The 2014 edition of the biennial defense white paper report set to be available next week will use that exact term, he said.

South Korea had dropped the definition in 2004 after 10 years of use, but revived the expression in its 2012 white paper after the North carried out a series of military provocations in 2010 including torpedoing the South Korean naval corvette Cheonan, killing 46 sailors, and shelling the western sea border island of Yeonpyeong, killing four.

The two Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. (Yonhap)