North Korea Publishes Revised Constitution Defining South Korea as a Separate Neighbouring State
North Korea on November 11 published the full text of its revised socialist constitution on the state-run Naenara website, the first time the document has been publicly accessible since it was taken offline in March 2024, South Korea's Korea JoongAng Daily and other outlets reported.
The amendments were adopted on March 23 at the first session of the 15th Supreme People's Assembly. A new territorial clause in Article 2 defines North Korea's territory as land bordering China and Russia to the north and the Republic of Korea to the south, together with the territorial waters and airspace based on that land. The clause does not specify the exact boundary with South Korea.
Provisions on national reunification that appeared in the previous constitution have been removed. The published text does not, however, designate South Korea as the "No. 1 hostile state" or an "invariable principal enemy." The revision also confirms Kim Jong Un as head of state in his capacity as chairman of the State Affairs Commission and expands his authority over the nuclear forces, including the power to delegate the authority to use nuclear weapons to a relevant state agency.
The published text largely matches a draft that South Korea's Ministry of Unification obtained and released in May, which Reuters reported at the time as defining South Korea as a separate state and dropping references to reunification. Kim called in late 2023 for inter-Korean relations to be treated as relations between two hostile states, and Pyongyang removed the constitution from the Naenara site in March 2024.
(Source: Korea JoongAng Daily)
Source: Korea JoongAng Daily
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：平壤万寿台议事堂，朝鲜最高人民会议所在地。照片 CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang, seat of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
