N. Korea bans mentioning 'unification' even in Chongryon

It is said that North Korea has delivered a 13-item directive to the Chongryon, a pro-North Korean Zainichi Koreans’ organization in Japan, including a ban on unification activities. It includes cutting off relations even with South Korean figures who are friendly to Chongryon, prohibiting quotations of Kim Il Sung’s remarks if they bring to mind fellow countrymen, and revising lyrics of school songs containing expressions such as unification or the Three Thousand-Li Great Rivers and Mountains. North Korea also instructed that the third part of the modern history textbooks for Chongryon-affiliated high schools, which includes a federal unification plan, be omitted from classes.

This directive is an expression‎ of the North Korean regime’s will to sever ties with South Korea by any means necessary if it is within its influence. It is an extension of the policy of “South and North are two hostile states” that North Korea brought up last year. Earlier this year, Chairman Kim Jong Un instructed that South Korea be explicitly stated in the Constitution, calling it “the unchanging enemy” and “the number one hostile state.” Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister, began referring to us as the “Republic of Korea” instead of South Korea. This probably means that the South and the North are not in a special relationship that seeks unification, but rather a normal state-to-state relationship.

Following Kim Jong Un’s change in policy, the expression‎ “our people” that he used to emphasize whenever he opened his mouth disappeared, the name of the Unification Front Department was changed to the 10th Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and there has been no trace of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland for over three years. The monument commemorating the Three Charters for National Reunification that Kim Il Sung built in Pyongyang, which is not befitting a hereditary dynasty, was also demolished. It is said that children are forced to change their names if they use the words “unification” or “Korea.” The breakdown in inter-Korean relations has become so severe since the Hanoi U.S.-North Korea nuclear talks in 2019 collapsed that the three meetings between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un, in which they confirmed that they are the same people, were rendered meaningless. At the time, North Korea’s true intention was revealed to “only give up some nuclear weapons and lift economic sanctions.”

North Korea is eval‎uated to have changed the axis of its regime security to focus on North Korea-Russia military cooperation instead of seeking a breakthrough through North Korea-US diplomacy. While it has become somewhat distant from China, its longtime ally, it has established a quasi-military alliance with Russia through the Ukraine War. The problem is that it is not certain what Pyongyang’s intentions are and how long its current isolationist behavior will last. The current reality on the Korean Peninsula is that it is not known when and where it will launch a localized military provocation while sending up sewage balloons.