Kim’s new map, confusion amid demands for reunification of two Koreas

Last Updated on February 10, 2025 6:01 am

Tensions between North and South Korea are nothing new. Reunification efforts between the two Koreas have not been successful since the Korean War in the 1950s. However, a recent viral image of a map of North Korea has confused policy researchers and users alike. The viral map shows the Korean peninsula divided into two separate parts.

The map was shared on Chinese social media platform RedNote (Xiaohongshu) and claims that the revised map was shared in April 2024. Newsweek reports.

Pyongyang has been demanding reunification with Seoul for decades, but always on its own terms. The three-year Korean War ended in 1953 without any peace treaty, and no peace treaty has even been signed between the two countries.

According to Newsweek, the map only shows the administrative districts of North Korea and excludes South Korea.

Instead, South Korea was shown in gray like China and simply labeled as ‘South Korea’. Previously, they referred to South Korea on the map as ‘puppet Korea’, implying that the South was not an independent country but a ‘US puppet state’.

North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un said in a speech last October, “In the past, we talked a lot about liberating the South (South Korea) and reuniting the country by force. But now we are not interested in that at all, and since we have declared two countries, we are not even aware of that country.”