North Korea released the full text of its revised constitution on Wednesday, a document that defines South Korea as a separate neighboring state, removes provisions related to reunification and expands leader Kim Jong-un’s authority over the country’s nuclear forces. The Korean-language text was posted on the North Korean propaganda website Naenara, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily.
A note attached to the posting states that the constitution was amended and supplemented at the first session of the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly on March 23. The publication marks the first time outsiders have been able to read the charter in roughly two years and eight months, the newspaper reported.
Article 2 names the Republic of Korea as a bordering country
The most notable change identified by the Korea JoongAng Daily is a new territorial provision that explicitly treats South Korea as a separate country. Article 2 defines North Korea’s territory as 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 the territorial waters and airspace based on that land.
The article places South Korea in the same category as China and Russia — a state that shares a border with North Korea. It does not, however, specify where those land or maritime boundaries lie.
Reunification language stripped from the text
Provisions on national reunification that appeared in the previous version of the constitution have been removed entirely, the report said. The amended charter reflects Pyongyang’s policy of treating inter-Korean relations as relations between “two hostile states.”
At the same time, the published text stops short of the harshest formulations used in North Korean rhetoric. It does not include language designating South Korea as the “No. 1 hostile state” or the “invariable principal enemy.”
The revised constitution widens Kim’s nuclear command
The revised constitution also contains provisions strengthening Kim’s personal authority. It grants the chairman of the State Affairs Commission — the post Kim holds — command over the country’s nuclear forces, and the power to delegate authority to use nuclear weapons to the state nuclear command organization.
How the charter disappeared from public view
North Korea disabled the constitution section of its Naenara website in March 2024, cutting off outside access to the text. The move followed Kim’s declaration of the two-state doctrine.
At a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party in late 2023, Kim described inter-Korean relations as those between “two belligerent states” rather than relations between members of the same nation. At a Supreme People’s Assembly meeting in January 2024, he ordered the removal of constitutional references to the “northern half” of Korea and to the principles of “independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity.”
Wednesday’s publication brings those instructions into public view for the first time in the form of an official, complete text.
Two gaps against the version released in Seoul
The newly published version largely matches the revised constitution that South Korea’s Ministry of Unification obtained and released in May, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported. There are two differences.
- The Naenara text omits part of Article 121, which governs the Cabinet’s authority to adopt resolutions at plenary meetings.
- It also omits part of Article 156, which sets out how people’s assessors, or lay judges, are elected to special courts.
It remains unclear whether those passages were deleted in the actual revision or simply left out when the public version was edited, according to the report.
A hardening line on inter-Korean contact
The appearance of the revised constitution comes as Pyongyang continues to rebuff outside calls for dialogue with Seoul. The Korea JoongAng Daily reported separately that Kim’s sister condemned the United Nations secretary-general’s call for renewed inter-Korean dialogue, issued after a land mine explosion in the demilitarized zone injured South Korean soldiers.
The same outlet has also reported that North Korea appears to be building a 10,000-ton cruiser, a vessel larger than any ship in the South Korean navy, as part of a broader military modernization push.
What the document records
Taken together, the articles made public on Naenara record in law what Kim first set out in speeches: that the North no longer describes the South as part of a single nation awaiting reunification, but as a neighboring state across a border. The revised constitution leaves the precise location of that border undefined, and it places the authority to order the use of nuclear weapons squarely with the chairman of the State Affairs Commission.
Reporting on the text was published under the byline of Ko Seung-pyo at the Korea JoongAng Daily.
