{"id":6481,"date":"2026-05-07T00:11:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T00:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/6481\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T00:11:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T00:11:22","slug":"is-north-koreas-constitutional-shift-a-move-towards-peaceful-co-existence-with-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/6481\/","title":{"rendered":"Is North Korea\u2019s constitutional shift a move towards \u2018peaceful co-existence\u2019 with South?"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Korea<\/a> has removed references to \u201cnational reunification\u201d from its constitution and newly defined its territory as land bordering South Korea<\/a>, a move analysts say may signal Pyongyang\u2019s intent to avoid direct conflict with Seoul.<\/p>\n

The constitutional overhaul is widely seen as aligning with the North\u2019s evolving stance towards Seoul \u2013 shifting away from reunification and towards a more formalised state-to-state relationship.<\/p>\n

Pyongyang took more than two and a half years to revise the constitution after leader Kim Jong-un<\/a> declared that inter-Korean ties should be redefined as those between \u201ctwo hostile states\u201d<\/a> and ordered the change to be codified.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, phrases from the previous constitution that emphasised \u201cindependence, peaceful reunification, and great national unity\u201d have been deleted, along with a pledge to \u201cstruggle to achieve national reunification\u201d.<\/p>\n

References in the preamble to reunification-related achievements of state founder Kim Il-sung and former leader Kim Jong-il were also removed.<\/p>\n

\"AA North Korean military guard post and loudspeaker (top right) and South Korean military guard post (bottom) are seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea. Photo: AP<\/p>\n

Notably, the revised constitution introduces a territorial clause for the first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Korea has removed references to \u201cnational reunification\u201d from its constitution and newly defined its territory as land…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[134,5281,2340,446,447,141,5279,5280,34,129,4841,137,112,3841,5282],"class_list":["post-6481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pyongyang","tag-china","tag-cho-han-bum","tag-democratic-peoples-republic-of-korea","tag-kim-il-sung","tag-kim-jong-il","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-korea-institute-for-national-unification","tag-korean-peninsula","tag-north-korea","tag-pyongyang","tag-republic-of-korea","tag-russia","tag-seoul","tag-seoul-national-university","tag-united-nations-command"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6481","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=6481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}