The Korea Herald

피터빈트

N.K. calls itself 'nuclear-armed state' in revised constitution

By 황장진

Published : May 30, 2012 - 22:18

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North Korea calls itself a "nuclear-armed state" in its recently revised constitution, according to its full text confirmed on Wednesday in the North's "Naenara" web site.

Following December's death of leader Kim Jong-il, the North has revised its constitution to add three new sentences and one of them contains the term of a nuclear-armed state.

"National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il has turned our fatherland into an invincible state of political ideology, a nuclear-armed state and an indomitable military power, paving the ground for the construction of a strong and prosperous nation,"

part of the revised constitution says.

The North's previous constitution last revised on April 9, 2010, didn't contain such a term as nuclear-armed state.

The revised constitution also idolized Kim Jong-il and elevated his standing equal to his father and the North's founder Kim Il-sung. Indeed, it refers to both Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il as the "sun of Korean people" and "elder of world politics."

Established on September 8, 1948, the North Korean constitution had been revised in 1972, 1992, 1998, 2009 and 2010. (Yonhap News)