North Korea removes South Korea reunification references from constitution

North Korea has revised its constitution to redefine its territorial boundaries as bordering South Korea and to remove references to Korean reunification, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters.

The changes appear to formalise leader Kim Jong Un’s policy of treating the two Koreas as permanently separate states.

The revision is believed to have been adopted at a March session of the Supreme People’s Assembly, North Korea’s rubber-stamp legislature. Experts cited by South Korean officials say it marks the first time the country has added a detailed territorial clause to its constitution.

The new Article 2 states that North Korea’s territory includes land “bordering the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation to the north and the Republic of Korea to the south,” along with territorial waters and airspace based on that land.

The clause also says North Korea “will never tolerate any infringement” of its territory, while not specifying the precise location of the inter-Korean border or addressing disputed maritime boundaries such as the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea.

The revised constitution also changes leadership language, designating Kim Jong Un, as chairman of the State Affairs Commission, as North Korea’s head of state. It further states that command over the country’s nuclear forces rests with the same position, formally consolidating authority over the nuclear arsenal under Kim.

A separate defence provision describes North Korea as a “responsible nuclear weapons state” and says it will advance nuclear weapons development “to safeguard the country’s survival and development rights, deter war and protect regional and global peace and stability.”

According to South Korean media reports, Seoul National University professor Lee Jung-chul told a briefing at South Korea’s Unification Ministry that the omission of a clearly defined inter-Korean border may reflect Pyongyang’s effort to avoid immediate escalation of territorial tensions while still embedding its “two hostile states” doctrine in constitutional law.

Kim Jong Un had earlier called in January 2024 for constitutional amendments defining South Korea as the North’s “primary foe and invariable principal enemy” and stating that North Korean territory is separate from the South.

By Sabina Mammadli