North Korea drops 'peaceful unification' from party charter, adds wartime provisions

North Korea has removed all references to "peaceful unification" from the Workers' Party charter — the country's supreme governing document — while adding new wartime provisions and further consolidating leader Kim Jong-un's authority under a sole-leadership system.

The National Security Strategy Institute released the full text of the revised Workers' Party charter Thursday in a report titled "Analysis of the Revised Party Charter from North Korea's Ninth Party Congress and Assessment of the North Korean Situation."

Intelligence authorities had previously confirmed that North Korea amended its party charter in June 2024 to reflect a "two-state" policy, but Thursday marked the first time the full text — incorporating revisions made at the party congress in February — has been made public.

According to the document, passages in the charter's preamble that described "Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism" and praised the achievements of Kim Jong-un's predecessors have been removed.

The Eighth Party Congress in 2021 had already stripped out basic content related to the legacy and symbolic significance of past leaders. This latest revision eliminates the two remaining paragraphs on that subject, completing their removal from the preamble and cementing the party's identity around General Secretary Kim Jong-un.

In line with the "two hostile states" policy, the preamble has also been purged of unification- and ethnic-related language, including references to "peaceful unification of the fatherland," the "united front," "South Korea," "great national unity" and "nationwide scope."

The revised charter also significantly expands the defined powers of the general secretary — the post held by Kim. Where the previous charter contained only a broad designation of the general secretary as the party's head, the new version explicitly enumerates specific authorities: the power to convene meetings, appoint and dismiss officials, expel party members, and dissolve party departments.

In addition, the revised charter introduces wartime provisions for the first time in the party's history, including a clause allowing the party to skip election procedures when organizing its structures during wartime.

The preamble also adds the party's five lines of party building — political, organizational, ideological, disciplinary and work-style construction — and raises the minimum age for party membership from 18 to 20.

The minimum membership age was set at 20 when the Workers' Party was founded in 1945, then lowered to 18 at the Third Party Congress in 1956 after the Korean War to expand the party's ranks, the institute said. The latest revision restores the original threshold for the first time in more than 70 years.