North Korea Removes ‘Peaceful Reunification’ From Party Rules, Emphasizing the Kim Jong Un Era

North Korea has fully removed its reunification policy from the rules of the ruling Workers’ Party, confirming a sharper institutional shift after Kim Jong Un declared the two Koreas to be in an “adversarial two-state relationship” in 2023.

The National Strategy Institute for National Security Studies released the full text of the revised rules at a briefing in Seoul on the 3rd. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service had obtained a version revised in June 2024 and reported some contents to parliament in April. The newly released text also incorporates revisions adopted at the Workers’ Party’s ninth congress in February.

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Adversarial two-state relationship

The rules delete references to national independence, national unity and peaceful reunification, as well as the party’s revolutionary line toward the South. North Korea also removed reunification concepts and principles from its constitution, revised in March. Kim Il-gi, a senior researcher at the institute, said the party rules did not formally define inter-Korean ties as “adversarial” or as relations between belligerent states, as the constitution also does not. He said this could leave space for contact between the two Koreas under the two-state principle.

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Firmly united organizationally and ideologically around its head

The revised rules reduce descriptions of the achievements of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and instead place Kim Jong Un at the center of the party system. Earlier praise for the former leaders was removed, while the preamble states that the Workers’ Party is “firmly united organizationally and ideologically around its head.”

The rules specify the general secretary’s powers in detail, including appointing and dismissing cadres, admitting and expelling party members, and dissolving party organizations and departments. The institute described the revision as part of building the laws and institutions of “Kim Jong Un Era 2.0.” The post of first secretary, created in 2021 as the general secretary’s deputy, remains in place, although North Korea has not officially announced who holds it. Researchers said party secretary Jo Yong-won performs the role despite not being formally appointed. The rules also add provisions for the party’s central committee during wartime and raise the minimum age for joining the party from 18 to 20, returning to the standard used when the party was founded in 1945.

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Kim Jong Un Era 2.0