{"id":12219,"date":"2026-05-11T07:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/12219\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T07:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:47:24","slug":"north-korea-drops-references-to-unification-with-south-from-constitution-seoul-says-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/12219\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea drops references to unification with South from constitution, Seoul says"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Korea has removed all references to reunification with the South from its constitution, according to a document seen by the AFP news agency on Wednesday, underscoring Pyongyang’s push for a more hostile policy towards Seoul.<\/p>\n

A clause stating that North Korea aimed “to realise the unification of the motherland” no longer appears in the latest version of the constitution, which was shared at a news conference held at South Korea’s Unification Ministry.<\/p>\n

The development comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un labelled Seoul as the “most hostile state” in a policy address in March.<\/p>\n

The revised constitution, which the document indicated was introduced in March, also includes a new clause delineating North Korea’s territory.<\/p>\n

Using South Korea’s official name, it says that includes the area bordering China and Russia to the north, “and the Republic of Korea to the south.”<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People walk in the street of the Central District of Pyongyang, 25 December, 2025 – AP Photo <\/p>\n

North Korea “absolutely does not allow any infringement on its territory,” it added.<\/p>\n

South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung has called for talks with the North without any preconditions, saying the countries are destined “to make the flowers of peace bloom.”<\/p>\n

But the North has not responded to the Lee administration’s overtures and has repeatedly called the South its “most hostile” adversary.<\/p>\n

Kim has vowed to boost his nuclear forces and Pyongyang conducted four missile tests in April, the most in a single month for more than two years.<\/p>\n

The South\u2019s unification ministry said in April that the North Korean economy was showing signs of recovery as Pyongyang deepens trade and diplomatic ties with Russia and traditional ally China.<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a press conference at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, 13 April, 2026 – AP Photo <\/p>\n

China has long been the diplomatically isolated country’s main economic backer, though Pyongyang has also drawn closer to Moscow since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n

Pyongyang and Moscow inked a defence treaty in 2024 that calls for military support in the case of either country being attacked.<\/p>\n

That year, the North sent thousands of troops to Russia to support its war on Ukraine. They were deployed to the western Kursk region to held fend off a months-long counter-offensive by Kyiv’s forces.<\/p>\n

Several senior Russian officials have also visited North Korea recently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Korea has removed all references to reunification with the South from its constitution, according to a document…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8021,34,177,129,112,33,37],"class_list":{"0":"post-12219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pyongyang","8":"tag-hostile-policy","9":"tag-north-korea","10":"tag-north-korean-leader","11":"tag-pyongyang","12":"tag-seoul","13":"tag-south-korea","14":"tag-unification-ministry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}