{"id":5818,"date":"2026-05-06T15:19:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/5818\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T15:19:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:19:23","slug":"north-korea-revises-constitution-to-drop-references-to-unification-with-south-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/5818\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea revises constitution to drop references to unification with South"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Korea<\/a> has reportedly updated its constitution<\/a> to clearly define its territory and, for the first time, state that leader Kim Jong Un<\/a> has authority over the nation\u2019s nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

The revision has also removed all references to reunification with South Korea.<\/p>\n

Experts say the changes may be an attempt to present North Korea as a more \u201cnormal\u201d state, according to The Chosun Daily, a South Korean paper. The new text reportedly avoids strongly hostile language towards the South <\/a>and removes older ideological references from the preamble, including the phrase \u201cKim Il-sung\u2013Kim Jong-il Constitution\u201d.<\/p>\n

The changes were apparently adopted at a March session of the Supreme People\u2019s Assembly, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

According to sources cited by the news agency, the changes include a revision to Article 2, which now reads: \u201cThe territory of the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea includes land areas bordering the People\u2019s Republic of China and the Russian Federation to the north, and the Republic of Korea to the south, as well as the territorial waters and airspace established based on this territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

It adds: \u201cThe Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea absolutely does not permit any infringement upon its territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

The text does not specify the exact inter-Korean boundary and makes no mention of disputed maritime lines such as the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea.<\/p>\n

The revision eliminates longstanding language on \u201cpeaceful reunification\u201d with the South and \u201cnational unity\u201d. Experts say this amendment underscores Pyongyang\u2019s shift towards treating the two Koreas as separate and opposing states rather than components of a single nation seeking reunification.<\/p>\n

\"Kim<\/p>\n

Kim Jong Un speaks during the opening ceremony of a museum honouring North Korean soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine in Pyongyang on 26 April 2026 (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Lee Jung Chul, professor of international relations at Seoul National University, told The Korea Herald that terms associated with reunification and ethnic nationalism, including \u201cnorthern half\u201d, \u201creunification of the fatherland\u201d, \u201cpeaceful reunification\u201d and \u201cgreat national unity\u201d, had been removed from both the preamble and the main text of the constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeleting the phrase \u2018Kim Il-sung-Kim Jong-il Constitution\u2019 and omitting hostile rhetoric toward the South suggests the constitutional revision was conducted in the direction of normalising the state. It appears to reflect a judgment on how the supreme document of a sovereign state should be structured,\u201d he said, adding that this change \u201cappeared to signal Pyongyang\u2019s willingness to project an image of a normal state\u201d.<\/p>\n

North Korea adopted its constitution in September 1948 and revised it five times before introducing a socialist constitution in 1972. After 12 further amendments, it reportedly updated the document early this year, removing the word \u201csocialist\u201d from its title, The Korea Herald reported.<\/p>\n

The constitutional changes also strengthen the authority of the State Affairs Commission chairman. The position, held by Mr Kim, is formally defined as the \u201chead of state\u201d and its holder is placed above other state institutions.<\/p>\n

A new clause grants the chairman explicit command over the nation\u2019s nuclear forces. Article 6 states that \u201ccommand authority over nuclear forces belongs to the chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea\u201d and that \u201cthe chairman may delegate nuclear weapons use authority to the national nuclear warfare command organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The constitution describes North Korea as a \u201cresponsible nuclear weapons state\u201d and declares that nuclear development will continue to ensure national security and deter war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Korea has reportedly updated its constitution to clearly define its territory and, for the first time, state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4343,4765,2340,141,31,34,2447,4764,33],"class_list":{"0":"post-5818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-korea","8":"tag-constitution","9":"tag-constitutional-revision","10":"tag-democratic-peoples-republic-of-korea","11":"tag-kim-jong-un","12":"tag-korea","13":"tag-north-korea","14":"tag-nuclear-weapons","15":"tag-peaceful-reunification","16":"tag-south-korea"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5818","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=5818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}