North Korea drops unification goal, cements Kim as sole leader in revised party charter

Seoul, Sep 3 (AHN) North Korea has stripped references to "peaceful unification" with South Korea from the charter of its ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the full text of the document showed Thursday, in line with Pyongyang's redefinition of inter-Korean ties as those between "two hostile" states.

The text, released by Seoul's Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS), is the first public disclosure of the charter in full, Yonhap News Agency reported.

South Korea's intelligence authorities have previously said the charter was revised in June 2024 to reflect the North's new stance, but the actual language had not been made public until now.

The released text also includes updates adopted at the WPK's ninth congress in February.

The revised WPK rules strengthen the authority of leader Kim Jong-un, while removing references to the achievements of his predecessors, the late state founder Kim Il-sung and his father Kim Jong-il. The change is widely interpreted as an effort to cement the third-generation leader's standing as the party's sole and unchallenged leader.

Beyond unification, the charter also removed mentions of the US military presence in South Korea and of "outside forces," in a move seen as reinforcing Pyongyang's position that the two Koreas are entirely separate states and no longer bound by a shared national identity.

At the Supreme People's Assembly session in January 2024, Kim ordered the constitution to be revised, saying "peaceful unification" with the South was no longer possible and that the concept of the Korean nation as one state should be removed. In October that year, Pyongyang confirmed its constitutional revisions.

The charter also spells out the authority of the WPK's general secretary in greater detail, including the power to convene meetings and to appoint and dismiss officials or dissolve party departments.

A newly added clause allows the party to skip internal elections during wartime, and raises the minimum party membership age from 18 to 20.

One detail remains unclear: who holds the post of first secretary, a position created at the eighth party congress in 2021 to serve as Kim's official proxy. The INSS said it believes Jo Yong-won, secretary of the party's Central Committee, is likely filling that role.

According to the INSS, these changes reflect Pyongyang's efforts to transition into the "Kim Jong-un Era 2.0" marking his nearly 15 years in power.

–AHN

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