The Two Koreas: Why North Korea’s Constitutional Change is Fantastic News for Peace
Good news. Very, very good news. The world is actually moving towards a more peaceful setup in one of its most dangerous flashpoints.
I’ve mentioned this before—perhaps a year or two ago—that the ideal solution for the Korean peninsula is simply for both sides to accept that they are two different countries and give up on the idea of reunification. The main reason is plainly simple: the two countries have been apart for way too long. They are culturally entirely different now, even if they are both ethnically Korean. The difference is far worse than East and West Germany, and even worse than Taiwan and China. The cultural gap is just too huge.
My proposal was always that they should just change their names—Joseon for the North, Hanguk for the South—and move on. And it seems we are finally heading in that direction.
North Korea Drops Reunification
For the first time, North Korea has updated its constitution to state that they no longer need reunification. They have adopted constitutional amendments that define their territorial borders: China and Russia to the north, and the Republic of Korea to the south.
The clause that mandated they must “strive” for unification with South Korea has been completely removed. Previously, it was written into their constitution—it was the very soul of the North Korean state to reunify the country on the principles of independence and great national unity. Now, they have finally decided that this objective is pointless.
This is incredibly good news because it means they have no more constitutional reason to go to war.
Even more notably, they did not identify South Korea as a primary foe in this new constitution. Despite Kim Jong-un previously characterizing the South as an enemy in speeches, this was not written into the supreme law of the land. They also didn’t mention the United States as a primary enemy.
The Path to a Peace Treaty
By removing the mandate for reunification and the hostile language, North Korea has opened up the possibility for normalization of relations.
You cannot sign a peace agreement if your constitution legally mandates that you must take over and merge with the other half of the peninsula. A peace deal would go against the constitution. Now that the constitution has changed, the legal path to a permanent peace treaty between the two Koreas is open.
I think it’s a good time for South Korea to do the same—remove the reunification mandate from their constitution and just accept that they are two different countries. Throughout history, the Korean peninsula has often been fractured into multiple kingdoms. Being one unified country is actually historically abnormal.
The Russian Factor
Why is this happening now? I believe this is only made possible because of North Korea’s new alliance with Russia.
Becoming a military ally with Russia comes with a responsibility not to get into a war unnecessarily. Because North and South Korea are technically still in a state of war, any accident that triggers a conflict would now obligate Russia to get involved.
But more importantly, North Korea now has full stability. They don’t need to worry about food or energy because they have Russia as their big brother. They are even getting advanced military and rocket technology. Diplomatically, politically, and economically, this is the most stable and comfortable North Korea has been since the Korean War broke out.
With this stability, I suspect Putin has advised Kim Jong-un to start looking toward the future.
What Comes Next?
Kim Jong-un is my age. We were born in the same year. He was educated in Switzerland; he is very westernized. I’m quite sure he has a lot of ideas, but he inherited a very backward country. It took him a long time to consolidate power and slowly transition the state.
I believe North Korea will eventually move away from staunch communism and towards a state-led capitalism model, similar to what Vietnam and China have done. They need to catch up to South Korea economically and culturally before they can fully normalize cross-border relations, otherwise, the cultural shock would destroy the North Korean system.
But as they modernize and open up tourism with Russia, they will have to transform. Once the North Korean people feel that progress, the country will finally be able to shed its backward, authoritarian branding.
This is a fantastic development. It means another major flashpoint in East Asia is getting less likely to erupt. And that is a win for everyone.
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