North Korea appears to have removed sections providing information on unification from its propaganda media outlets, their websites showed Thursday, just days after leader Kim Jong-un said there is no point in seeking reconciliation and unification with South Korea.

Wrapping up a year-end key party meeting last week, Kim called for “fundamentally” changing the way it deals with South Korea and defined inter-Korean relations as those of “two nations hostile to each other.”

The website of propaganda outlet Uriminzokkiri, which roughly translates to “among our own people,” showed Thursday that North Korea has removed a section on unification and replaced it with a Korean-language dictionary authored by Pyongyang academics.

The now-deleted section featured information on North Korea’s unification policy announced in 1997, in addition to various inter-Korean agreements reached during summits, including the Panmunjom Declaration and the Pyongyang Joint Declaration, both signed in 2018.

The website of Ryomyong,
another propaganda outlet, showed that sections such as “shortcut to peace and unification” and “people’s reconciliation and unity,” which provided information on inter-Korean affairs, have all been removed.

Following Kim’s speech, the North’s state media outlet reported earlier this week that the country has kicked off discussions on dismantling agencies in charge of inter-Korean relations, raising the view that North Korea will likely accelerate its push to restructure relevant organizations.

In a report published Wednesday, Oh Gyeong-seob, a director at the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification, said Pyongyang is likely to strengthen the role of agencies dealing with espionage operations or external ties, while dissolving or shrinking bodies in charge of inter-Korean affairs, such as the National Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.

Source: Yonhap News Agency