K-netizens React To Kim Jong Un Calling South Korea ‘Hanguk’ Instead Of ‘Southern Joseon

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un spoke at a military formation ceremony this week with his daughter, Kim Ju Ae.

Kim said in this speech, “That puppet bunch in Hanguk (South Korea) is the number 1 enemy country threatening our borders, and designating this country the unchanging, main enemy of our people, we have determined it a national policy to occupy and suppress this enemy territory in the event of an emergency…”

Kim said, “We have decided to actively abandon the useless, unrealistic, and cumbersome ordeal of complying with formalities and holding talks of negotiation with the figureheads of Hanguk, who dreamt of reunification by drawing up schemes to bring down the government of the People’s Republic, thereby absorbing our country into theirs…”

Korean netizens noticed Kim Jong Un’s use of “Hanguk” to refer to South Korea in his latest speech.

North Korea used “Nam Joseon” and “Namhan” to refer to the ROK until 2023. In December 2023 and January 2024, Kim Jong Un called the ROK “Daehanminguk” (Republic of Korea).

Why is this change important?

North Korean defectors used to say that many North Koreans thought “Hanguk” was different from “Namhan”.

North Korean textbooks stated that “Namhan was a colony ruled by the United States” and that the South was “a living hell where poverty and starvation is rampant”.

Thus, when brokers smuggled Korean films, dramas, and K-Pop into the North, North Koreans thought “Hanguk” was a distinct country than the one they learnt about in school.

With the uncontrollable spread of Korean films, dramas, and K-Pop into North Korea, many North Koreans now know that “Namhan” and “Hanguk” are the same countries. In recent years, North Korea has struggled to stop all unlawful South Korean content consumption.

In late 2023, Kim Jong Un’s administration began calling South Korea a “enemy country” in its foreign strategy.

As a K-netizen said, “They’ve abandoned the idea of reunification because they can’t keep saying that the people of the South are poor, starving, and desperately in need of saving from the American colonizers” .

Other netizens commented,

“I was so surprised that he called it Hanguk instead of Southern Joseon.”
“I’m pretty sure most people up in the North know by now that Southern Joseon and Hanguk are the same country.”
North Korea has been calling itself the ‘Democratic People’s Republic of Joseon’ and South Korea ‘Daehanminguk’ since January. South Korea is now seriously treated as a foreign country.”
“North-South relations are literally at an all-time worst right now.”
“Is that country finally nearing it’s end..?”
It may be the first time Kim Jong Un has discussed South Korea’s ‘absorption’ of the North to reunite. How do North Koreans feel about that possibility?”