The former head of South Korea’s Unification Ministry and chief researcher of Sejong Institute, Lee Jong-seok, said publicly today that North Korea has “given up” on the unification of South Korea in response to the constitution of the North Korean Labor Party.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee Jong-seok, former head of South Korea’s Unification Ministry and chief researcher of Sejong Research Institute, introduced North Korea’s newly revised “Constitution of the North Korean Labor Party” online today (2), saying that North Korea has actually given up on the strategic goal of “unification” of South Korea.
Lee Jong-seok said that North Korea’s pre-revision “United Front Ordinance” clearly stated that “our nation shall work together to unify the motherland under the principles of autonomy, peace, unification, and national unity,” but in the new party constitution, the phrase “between our nations” which symbolizes the linkage with the South Korean people was deleted. “In the new party constitution, the phrase “the common prosperity of the nation” was added to emphasize the coexistence of Korea and North Korea.
Lee Jong-seok mentioned that the reference to “the completion of the democratic revolution of national liberation nationwide” in the pre-revision United Front Ordinance was also deleted, indicating that North Korea’s unification discourse against Korea has gradually weakened, and the “North-South Korean revolutionary theory” cannot be found in the New Party Constitution. The new party constitution does not contain any reference to the “theory of the North and South Korean revolutions”.
According to Lee Jong-seok, the changes in North Korea’s relations with the U.S. and Japan are reflected in the New Party Charter, and one of the sentences “finally liquidate the U.S. political and military domination over North and South Korea” proves that North Korea has to some extent acknowledged the long-term influence of the U.S. on South Korea’s politics and military. In addition, the deletion of the phrase “to crush Japanese militarism and the conspiracy to invade again” from the new party constitution is a signal of friendship to Japan.
Lee Jong-seok said that the new position of the first secretary of the Workers’ Party was created in the new party constitution to ensure the stability of the leadership system, and it is assumed that the position is more likely to be vacant at present. The first secretary may be the successor of the regime, provided that the first secretary can only be of Baekdu Mountain origin, so in the event of the above-mentioned situation, it is likely that Kim and Jung will be elected as the first secretary.
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