North Korea’s Constitutional Shift Signals a New Two-State Era on the Korean Peninsula
- Phoebe Chow
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
North Korea is officially moving on.
Details of the regime’s constitutional amendments adopted in March were disclosed this month by South Korea’s Ministry of Unification in Seoul. North Korea’s 15th Supreme People’s Assembly approved revisions that, for the first time in the country’s history, define its territory as “bordering the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation to the north and the Republic of Korea to the south.”
The amendment formally removes long-standing references to reunification and reinforces the idea that the two Koreas are separate and distinct states. Language previously found in both the preamble and main text — describing inter-Korean relations as those of one divided people or referring to eventual reunification — has disappeared. Terms such as the “northern half,” “national reunification,” and the “complete victory of socialism” were all deleted from the revised text.
The changes reflect North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s 2023 declaration that relations between the two Koreas are no longer “consanguineous or homogeneous,” but instead those of “two hostile states.” That position has now been formally embedded in the Constitution, the foundational document defining North Korea’s national identity. Yet notably, the revised text stops short of explicitly labeling South Korea as a “hostile” or “belligerent” state.
The omission is significant. The constitution does not specify precise land or maritime boundaries, a move some analysts interpret as a possible olive branch from Pyongyang. By refraining from making explicit territorial claims south of the 38th parallel, North Korea may be attempting to lower tensions and avoid further escalation in disputed regions.
At the same time, the revised constitution further consolidates Kim Jong Un’s authority by identifying him as the country’s “head of state” and, for the first time, explicitly granting him command over North Korea’s nuclear forces.
For South Korea, the implications are profound. Seoul’s Ministry of Unification, the symbolic reunification monuments near the Demilitarized Zone, and the railway stations built in hope of reconnecting the peninsula all reflect a long-standing belief in eventual reunification, shaped in part by Kim Dae-jung’s Sunshine Policy. Whether North Korea’s constitutional shift marks a permanent strategic break or merely a recalibration of rhetoric will now be closely watched across the region.
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