North Korea has amended its Constitution, removing all references to unification with South Korea. In addition, Pyongyang has, for the first time, defined the country’s territorial borders, though it has not specified exactly where the border with South Korea runs.
Experts consider these changes positive.
The new version of the Constitution has 168 articles, divided into seven chapters, NK News reports.
Article 2 defines the state’s territorial borders for the first time in history. The DPRK borders the People’s Republic of China and Russia in the north, and the Republic of Korea in the south. The document states that Pyongyang “will not tolerate any encroachment on its territory under any circumstances.”
Another important change is the abandonment of references to unification with South Korea. In the previous version of the Constitution, Article 9 stated that the DPRK seeks to “reunify the country based on the principles of independence, peaceful unification, and great national unity.”
Now that the article has been removed from the Constitution, it has also removed references to the achievements and goals of former leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. It was with their names that the reunification of the people into a single state was associated.
In the previous version of the Constitution, the Chairman of the State Council of the DPRK (currently held by Kim Jong-un) was called the “supreme leader,” representing the state, Reuters notes, but the document now refers to him as the “head of state.” The Constitution officially places the head of state above the Supreme People’s Assembly for the first time, Yonhap writes.
The Constitution describes the DPRK as a “responsible nuclear power” (as in the previous version) and calls the Chairman of the State Council “commander of the nuclear forces,” which is an innovation.
