North Korea revises constitution, calls South Korea separate state & drops reunification

North Korea has released the full text of its revised constitution, formally defining South Korea as a separate neighbouring country and removing references to reunification, in a further step towards institutionalising leader Kim Jong-un's policy of treating the two Koreas as hostile states. The revised document, published on Wednesday on the North Korean propaganda website Naenara, also expands Kim's authority over the country's nuclear forces, including allowing him to delegate the power to use nuclear weapons to the state nuclear command organisation.

According to the Korea JoongAng Daily, the constitution was amended at the first session of the 15th Supreme People's Assembly on March 23. Its publication ends a period of more than two and a half years during which Pyongyang had made the constitutional text inaccessible online. The most significant change is in Article 2, which defines North Korea's territory as the land bordering China and Russia to the north and the Republic of Korea to the south, along with the territorial waters and airspace associated with it. The provision explicitly names South Korea as a separate country sharing a border with the North, although it does not specify the precise land or maritime boundaries. The revised constitution removes provisions on national reunification that appeared in the previous version.

Kim's authority over nuclear forces expanded

The revised text also strengthens the constitutional powers of the chairman of the State Affairs Commission, a post held by Kim. It places the country's nuclear forces under the chairman's command and allows the leader to delegate authority to use nuclear weapons to the state nuclear command organisation. The changes formalise Kim's control over the country's nuclear arsenal at a time when Pyongyang has increasingly emphasised its nuclear capabilities and the possibility of retaliation against attacks on its leadership. The newly published constitution largely corresponds with a revised version obtained and released by South Korea's Ministry of Unification in May, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported. However, the public text omits portions of two articles. One concerns the Cabinet's authority to adopt resolutions at plenary meetings, while the other deals with the election of lay judges to special courts. It is unclear whether these passages were removed during the constitutional revision or excluded when the version was prepared for publication.