North Korea has quietly erased one of the most symbolic ideas in its fractured history from the constitution, sparking renewed fears the hermit kingdom run by despot Kim Jong-un will never return to the fold.
According to documents revealed at a briefing by South Korea’s Unification Ministry, a clause stating the regime aimed “to realise the unification of the motherland” has completely disappeared from the country’s revised constitution.
The move is the clearest sign yet that leader Kim is abandoning decades of rhetoric around eventual unity with South Korea and instead cementing the two Koreas as permanent enemies.
The significance of the change runs deep, spitting in the face of decades of optimistic campaigns to repair the bloody history between the two neighbours.
Since the Korean peninsula was split after World War II and devastated by the Korean War in the 1950s, both governments had officially maintained that reunification was the long-term goal.
The North has traditionally portrayed itself as the true government of all Koreans, while Seoul has also enshrined reunification as a national aspiration. Families separated by war have become enduring symbols of the division, with emotional reunions occasionally taking place during rare diplomatic thaws.
Even at the height of military tensions, the concept of eventual unity survived. But, Kim appears to be dismantling that idea entirely as the broader global fractures.
As a military dictatorship guilty of numerous human rights violations, North Korea has long remained the planet’s black sheep. With a recent slew of missile tests, nuclear rhetoric and a iron-clad commitment to spending a whopping 25 per cent of his money on “defence”, Kim appears to be doubling-down on preserving his isolated dynasty.
Earlier this year, he labelled the South his country’s “most hostile state”. It was a dramatic shift in tone even by Pyongyang’s standards.
The updated constitution now explicitly defines North Korea’s territory as stretching from its borders with China and Russia in the north to “the Republic of Korea to the south”, using Seoul’s official state name rather than language implying a shared nation.
It also warns North Korea “absolutely does not allow any infringement on its territory”.
Analysts say the constitutional rewrite signals a broader ideological shift inside North Korea, one where Seoul is now viewed as a fully foreign and hostile enemy as opposed to an estranged sibling.
Sitting a stone’s throw from one of the most tense borders on the planet, Seoul’s 20 million-strong population continue to live out daily life despite knowing an undisclosed battery of nuclear warheads are pointed in their direction.
The change comes despite repeated overtures from South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who has pushed for unconditional talks and said the two Koreas were destined “to make the flowers of peace bloom”.
Instead, Kim has continued ramping up the country’s military posture, vowing to strengthen its nuclear arsenal while overseeing four missile tests in April alone. The reality hits millions on the ground in Seoul each and every time the North gets trigger happy, with government alerts lighting up smartphones and civilians urged to remain vigilant.
North Korea has also drawn closer to Russia in recent years, supplying troops and artillery shells to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine in what analysts are describing as the formation of a “new axis”.
While the dashing of reunification from the constitution is a major step backwards, the reality is that the South’s efforts at peace have repeatedly hit snags.
Attempts at improving ties between the two Koreas over the years have constantly collided with the North’s suffocating authoritarianism and obsession with controlling information.
In one striking example previously reported by news.com.au, South Korean journalist Sung Yoon Ri was nearly detained by North Korean soldiers while covering an extremely rare inter-Korean family reunion event at Mount Kumgang.
His apparent offence was taking what he believed was an innocent landscape photo.
“I took a picture of the beautiful scenery of Kumgang Mountain in my leisure time,” Sung Yoon said.
But the mountain reportedly contained hidden military installations, and North Korean guards quickly accused him of espionage.
“Suddenly, one North Korean soldier came out and forced me to show the picture.”
Sung Yoon said the situation rapidly escalated, with more soldiers summoned as tensions grew.
“I was about to be arrested by the North Korean army and tortured,” he said.
The incident unfolded during one of the few remaining reconciliation programs between the two Koreas — emotional reunions between families separated by the Korean War. But even those tightly controlled meetings, he claimed, were heavily monitored and used as political theatre by the regime.
“Because North Korea uses the reunion as propaganda, the communists never allow all the separated family members to meet altogether,” Sung Yoon said.
It is one of countless incidents that have helped sow a seemingly unfixable culture of mistrust. Even today, the South’s military admits it is still unaware of just how many secret tunnels the North has built underneath the Korean demilitarised zone.
The most famous tunnels, originally claimed by the North to be “mining tunnels” have been turned into tourist attractions, but many others may still remain undetected.
