Earlier this week, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un delivered a speech at a ceremony commemorating the founding of the country's military, where he appeared alongside his daughter, Kim Ju Ae.

During this speech, Kim said, "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 continued, "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..."

This recent speech by Kim Jong Un gained attention among Korean netizens for the state leader's noticeable use of the word "Hanguk" when referring to South Korea.

Up until the end of 2023, the North Korean government was known for using terms such as "Nam Joseon" (Southern Joseon) and "Namhan" (Southern Korea) to refer to the Republic of Korea, or the ROK. However, around December of 2023 and into January of 2024, Kim Jong Un began addressing the ROK as "Daehanminguk" (Republic of Korea). 

Why is this change significant? 

In the past, North Korean defectors would tell stories of how many people in the North believed that "Hanguk" was a different country from "Namhan". 

Textbooks in North Korea taught students 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 content such as Korean films, dramas, and K-Pop into the North, and the people of North Korea learned of a country known as "Hanguk", they imagined that it was a different country somewhere else - not the country south of the peninsula that they learned about in school. 

But now, with the uncontrollable spread of Korean films, dramas, and K-Pop into North Korea, many North Koreans have figured out that "Namhan" and "Hanguk" are the same countries. Especially in recent years, it has become nearly impossible for the North Korean government to clamp down on every single instance of illegal South Korean content consumption.

As a result, beginning in late 2023, Kim Jong Un's government has adopted a new policy when dealing with South Korea by using strong wording such as the "enemy country". 

In the words of one K-netizen, "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 also left comments like,

"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."

"Starting in January of this year, North Korea has been calling itself the 'Democratic People's Republic of Joseon' and South Korea 'Daehanminguk'. They are seriously treating South Korea as a foreign country now."

"North-South relations are literally at an all-time worst right now."

"Is that country finally nearing it's end..?"

"It might be the first time that Kim Jong Un actually talked about South Korea's policy of 'absorbing' the North to achieve reunification. I wonder how the North Korean people feel after hearing that as a possibility?"