Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
North Korea has revised its constitution to abandon the aim of reunification with Seoul, redefining itself for the first time in more than 70 years as a separate country from its longtime southern adversary.
The change, which formalised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s intention to drop his regime’s commitment to eventual reunification, was disclosed by an academic at a press conference hosted by the South Korean Ministry of Unification on Wednesday.
The new text states that “the territory of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea includes the territory bordering the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation to the north and the Republic of Korea to the south, and the territorial sea and airspace established on it”.
Experts said this implied an official acceptance of two separate Korean states. Previously, Pyongyang has expressed a commitment to the ultimate reunification of the Korean peninsula, which was divided at the end of the second world war.
North Korea has not made any comment on the revised constitution and the source of the text revealed by the unification ministry was not disclosed.
While the revised text did not make reference to South Korea in hostile terms, analysts said this did not necessarily indicate an end to Pyongyang’s aggressive rhetoric against its southern neighbour.
“This fits in the context of a prolonged effort to redefine North Korea as a ‘normal state’ just like any other,” said Christopher Green, a senior consultant at the International Crisis Group. “Normal states define their adversaries in defence white papers and defence reviews and the like; they do not define their adversaries in the constitution.”
Kim has repeatedly spoken of the two Koreas as separate countries in recent years. He has also erased symbolic references to reunification, renaming Tongil (“reunification”) metro station in Pyongyang and dismantling an Arch of Reunification monument.
Green noted that the constitution’s new preamble expressed an intention to adhere to international norms in terms of territorial limits.
This matters in the context of a dispute over the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas in the Yellow Sea that was drawn by the United Nations Command shortly after the 1953 Korean war armistice.
Pyongyang has never formally recognised the NLL, which it argues is unilaterally imposed by the US and violates international maritime law.
“This constitutional revision serves to reinforce a difference of opinion and set up the conditions for potential future clashes,” said Green.
In a further break with the past, the phrase “Kim Il-sung-Kim Jong-il Constitution” was also removed, as was language that said North Korea had “inherited the glorious revolutionary struggle achieved in the liberation of the country and the freedom and happiness of the people against imperialist invaders”.
The revised constitution also gave Kim authority over the use of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and said that he may delegate related decisions to “the state nuclear command structure”.
Kim has previously loosened the country’s nuclear doctrine to allow for pre-emptive nuclear strikes, including in response to an attack by conventional forces.
Credit: Source link
