North Korea Amends Constitution to Drop Reunification

North Korea has amended its constitution to define its territory as bordering South Korea to the south for the first time, while removing all references to reunification with the South, according to a draft reviewed by South Korean experts. The changes, adopted during a March meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, Pyongyang's legislature, formalize leader Kim Jong Un's position that the two Koreas constitute separate states.

The new Article 2 describes North Korea's territory as encompassing 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 associated territorial waters and airspace. The clause asserts that North Korea will not tolerate any infringement on its territory but omits specifics on maritime boundaries, such as the disputed Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea.

The revisions also designate Kim, as chairman of the State Affairs Commission, as the country's head of state, elevating the position above the Supreme People's Assembly in the constitutional hierarchy. For the first time, the document explicitly grants the chairman supreme command over North Korea's nuclear forces,...