A Study on Recent Legislative Changes in North-Korea

This study aims to identify the implications for inter-Korean exchange and cooperation and the establishment of unification policy under the South Korean Constitution by observing changes in North Korean society based on the meaning and content of certain aspects of recently enacted or revised North Korean laws. It was found that recent legislation in North Korea is in the process of forming a unique and special socialist rule of law state that is different from traditional socialist countries. In the early days of the establishment of political power in North Korea, laws were influenced by Marxism-Leninism before gradually evolving into the Juche ideology from the late 1960s onward during the Kim Ilsung regime. During the mid-1990s under the Kim Jongil regime, North Korean laws fell under the influence of the military-first ideology, which is a de facto emergency system. Furthermore, laws were frequently enacted by promoting law enactment project after Kim Jongun came to power in 2012, as the regime sought to “normalize the state” by revising the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 2019. Therefore, recent changes in North Korea's legal system raise certain implications when attempting to understand the current situation and forecast the future direction of change in North Korea. As North Korea is in a special situation, it is necessary to consider the special environment surrounding North Korea when attempting to understand changes in North Korea's legal system. In other words, to understand the ongoing changes in the legal system of North Korea, one must understand that the North has no choice but to pursue a policy of self-reliance, regime protection, and internal control due to the sanctions imposed against it, the blockade due to COVID-19, and the breakdown of the North Korea-US talks on denuclearization (the “Hanoi Talks”).…