N. Korea deletes commemorative stamps of inter-Korean summits from issuer’s website


North Korea has erased commemorative stamps with unification references from the website of its state-run stamp company, including those of inter-Korean summits, after its leader Kim Jong-un defined South Korea as the nation’s “primary foe.”

As of Tuesday, stamps related to unification or involving South Korea cannot be found on the website of North Korea’s Stamp Corp.

A case in point is commemorative stamps issued to celebrate inter-Korean summits held in 2000, 2007 and 2018.

North Korea issued stamps carrying photos of then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il shaking hands with then South Korean Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, respectively, for inter-Korean summits in 2000 and 2007.

In 2018, the North’s stamps were issued to mark summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and then South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the truce village of Panmunjom and Pyongyang.

Commemorative stamps of the joint declaration for the two Koreas’ first inter-Korean summit on June 15, 2000, were also dropped f
rom the website of Stamp Corp.

The move is the latest in a series of North Korea’s pushes to erase unification references after Kim Jong-un defined inter-Korean ties as relations between “two states hostile to each other” during a year-end party meeting.

Kim said there is no point in seeking unification with South Korea and threatened to “suppress” the whole territory of the South in the event of war.

In a related move, North Korea has erased an image of the Korean Peninsula from its major websites and dropped a phrase symbolizing a unified Korea from the lyrics of its national anthem.

Source: Yonhap News Agency