N. Korea Presumed to Change Name of Think Tank Dealing with Affairs with S. Korea

This photo, taken from the Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju, just south of the inter-Korean border on Oct. 29, 2024, shows loudspeakers against South Korea, installed by North Korea. (Image courtesy of Yonhap) SEOUL, Nov.

4 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea appears to have changed the name of a think tank designed to analyze affairs with South Korea, Seoul’s unification ministry said Monday, as its leader Kim Jong-un has bolstered animosity toward the South. North Korea disclosed the entity named the DPRK Institute of Enemy State Studies for the first time Sunday when it introduced a white paper issued by the think tank criticizing President Yoon Suk Yeol. The unification ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs said North Korea is presumed to have changed the name of the National Reunification Institute into the DPRK Institute of Enemy State Studies as an organization under the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) The move comes as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un defined inter-Korean relations as those between “two states hostile to each other” at a year-end party meeting.



Kim also ordered agencies handling inter-Korean relations to be disbanded and remove unification-related references. North Korea earlier changed the name of the United Front Department, a key party organ in charge of affairs with South Korea under the party, into the WPK Central Committee Bureau 10, or the tentatively named Enemy State Guidance Bureau. (Yonhap).