South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) on Monday analyzed North Korea's constitutional revision as having "clearly established the 'two Koreas' stance while significantly toning down hostility toward the South."
Rep. Park Sun-won of the Democratic Party of Korea, the ruling party secretary on the parliamentary Intelligence Committee, told reporters after a plenary meeting of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee that the NIS reported on the issue, saying that regarding North Korea's new constitution, "there is mention that infringement on the inviolability of areas bordering the Republic of Korea will not be tolerated, but there is no language hostile toward the South whatsoever."
The NIS reported that "through this constitutional revision, while the severance from the Republic of Korea is made clear, this appears to place emphasis on maintaining the status quo and managing the situation rather than necessarily carrying an offensive meaning toward the Republic of Korea."
Earlier, North Korea carried out a constitutional revision supporting its "two-state" stance, newly establishing a territorial clause defining only the northern region as its territory and deleting the unification clause.
The NIS also analyzed that North Korea significantly strengthened Chairman Kim's authority through this constitutional revision. The NIS said, "A notable feature of the new constitution is the deletion of the unification achievements of predecessors Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, with their names replaced by the term 'Suryong' (Supreme Leader)."
The NIS continued, "Various checks and functions on the State Affairs Commission Chairman have all been removed, and by stipulating that the authority to use nuclear weapons is delegated to the State Affairs Commission Chairman, the constitution for the first time explicitly states in writing that nuclear use authority rests with the State Affairs Commission Chairman."
