North Korea’s national anthem drops unification reference amid ongoing purge | NK News
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October 06, 2026Oct 06, 2026

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North Korea’s national anthem drops unification reference amid ongoing purge

Removal of phrase about undivided Korean Peninsula follows Kim Jong Un’s call for ‘decisive’ inter-Korean policy change

North Korea appears to have amended its national anthem to remove a reference to the Korean Peninsula amid a wider purge of anything representing unification with South Korea.

The amendment comes as North Korea works to systemically eliminate all references to unification after leader Kim Jong Un declared it an “impossible” goal and called for a “decisive” change to inter-Korean policy.

The opening stanza of the anthem previously featured the phrase “three thousand ri” (“삼천리”), referring to the Korean Peninsula’s roughly 730-mile length in traditional Korean units, but the DPRK foreign ministry’s website now lists an updated version