North Korea Publishes Revised Constitution Dropping Reunification Goal

North Korea has released the complete text of its amended socialist constitution, formally designating South Korea as an independent neighbouring nation while eliminating all institutional commitments toward peninsula reunification. Published on the state-run Naenara digital portal on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, the public release concludes more than two and a half years during which constitutional documentation remained offline. The constitutional overhaul codifies state policy advanced by leader Kim Jong Un to treat inter-Korean relations as interactions between two fundamentally separate and mutually hostile states. A note published with the text says the constitution was amended at the first session of the 15th Supreme People's Assembly on March 23.

Territorial Redefinition and Boundary Ambiguities

The most profound structural alteration occurs in Article 2, describing national sovereign domain as lands adjoining Russia and China along the north and abutting the Republic of Korea southward. By using South Korea's official name, the clause names the South as a separate country sharing a border with the North, and it covers North Korea's own territorial waters and airspace. However, the published constitutional passage omits precise geographical coordinates for land demarcation lines or contentious maritime boundaries. The clause does not address the disputed Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea, The Korea Times reported. The public text permanently removes historical constitutional clauses that bound the Pyongyang government to pursue national reunification based on independence and peaceful unity.

Centralization of Nuclear Command Authority

The revised constitutional charter significantly broadens the legal authority of the chairman of the State Affairs Commission, a leadership office occupied by Kim Jong Un. The text formally assigns supreme command of national nuclear combat forces to the commission chairman while establishing legal mechanisms to delegate operational launch authority to a state nuclear command body. A defence clause describes North Korea as a "responsible nuclear weapons state", Reuters reported in May when the draft text emerged. While earlier leadership speeches in January 2024 urged branding the South as an invariable principal enemy, the enacted constitutional language omits such inflammatory terminology. The revised constitution removes the phrase “Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il Constitution” from the preamble and expands the powers of the State Affairs Commission chairman, consolidating Kim Jong Un's rule, according to Dong-A Ilbo.

Diplomatic Rupture and Inter-Korean Evolution

The publication follows a prolonged dismantlement of cross-border infrastructure, including the demolition of Pyongyang's Arch of Reunification and the dissolution of three inter-Korean agencies. In June 2024, the ruling Workers' Party of Korea revised its own charter to drop "peaceful unification", South Korean intelligence said. South Korea's Ministry of Unification had previously obtained and released a draft version of the constitutional text in May, which largely corresponds with the newly published charter. The formal transition reflects deep political divergence following the breakdown of diplomatic negotiations with Washington and Seoul during previous summit engagements. Article 3 of South Korea's Constitution defines the entire Korean Peninsula as its territory, raising concerns about friction over competing claims, according to Dong-A Ilbo.