A North Korean diplomat who defected has revealed that the regime disbanded its National Unification Department, which managed inter-Korean affairs within the Foreign Ministry, three years ago. This revelation on Wednesday suggests that North Korea has been preparing its Two Koreas theory, which intensified last year, for an extended period.
This testimony emerged during the PEACE FORUM organized by the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS) at the Westin Chosun Seoul’s Orchid Room. The forum’s theme was Assessing Regional Security Threats and Strategies for Advancing Peace on the Korean Peninsula.
INSS Senior Research Fellow Lee Sang-keun presented his analysis, stating that North Korea is unlikely to abandon its Two Koreas theory. He noted that North Korea removed language related to the national liberation democratic revolution from the Workers’ Party charter during the 8th Party Congress in 2021. In 2022, it dismantled the Foreign Ministry’s National Unification Department, which handled unification-related external propaganda.
Lee explained that he confirmed the department’s dissolution through testimony from a defector diplomat on September 5. However, he did not specify whether this defector was a previously known figure or a recent arrival. Since the defection of Ri Il-kyu, a former counselor at the North Korean embassy in Cuba, was confirmed in July last year, no other North Korean diplomats have publicly disclosed their defection or entry into South Korea.
Lee further argued that North Korea’s Two Koreas theory is not a sudden development but rather a carefully crafted policy resulting from long-term preparation and strategic planning.
He added that North Korea has expressed its intention to enshrine the two-state relationship in its constitution. Given that North Korea has already included its nuclear possession in the constitution as a significant basis for its non-denuclearization stance, if the two-state relationship becomes constitutional, it will likely be difficult for North Korea to retract the Two Koreas theory in the future. Lee emphasized that the South Korean government should focus on exploiting the weaknesses of the Two Koreas theory rather than outright rejecting it.
Many experts have suggested that after North Korea first declared the inter-Korean relationship as a Two Koreas relationship in December 2023, it abolished its South Korea-related organizations under the Workers’ Party and the Cabinet, potentially transferring their functions to the Foreign Ministry’s National Unification Department.
However, if the National Unification Department’s dissolution is confirmed, further investigation is needed to determine the new practical control center for North Korea’s South Korea-related affairs. Some speculate that North Korea may have renamed the Workers’ Party’s United Front Department to Party Department 10, suggesting that the Foreign Ministry’s National Unification Department might have undergone a similar name change while maintaining comparable functions.