North Korea’s new Constitution calls Kim Jong-un head of state instead of ‘supreme leader’

Kim Jong-un has been formally named head of state of North Korea and the Commander-in-Chief of the military in a new Constitution observers said was possibly aimed at preparing for a peace treaty with the United States.

North Korea has also long called for a peace deal with the United States to normalise relations and end the technical state of war that has existed since the 1950-1953 Korean War concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

The new Constitution, unveiled on the Naenara state portal site on Thursday, said that Mr. Kim as chairman of the State Affairs Commission (SAC), a top governing body created in 2016, was “the supreme representative of all the Korean people”, which means head of state, and “commander-in-chief”.

A previous Constitution simply called Mr. Kim “supreme leader” who commands the country’s “overall military force”.

“Kim had dreamed of becoming the President of North Korea and he effectively made it come true,” said Kim Dong-yup, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Far East Institute in Seoul.

Hong Min, a researcher at Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said the title change was also aimed at preparing for a potential peace treaty with the United States. “The amendment may well be a chance to establish Kim’s status as the signer of a peace treaty when it comes, while projecting the image of the country as a normal state,” he said.

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