The data for this resource comes from the 통일법제데이터베이스(Unification Legislation Database), a joint effort of the Ministry of Reunification, Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Government Legislation. Laws are sorted by page views, downloaded, then marked with the date of download and date of last amendment.
The order of translation is by the number of page views, taking them as a proxy for interest. The categorisation of laws on the Law and North Korea website also follows that of the Unification Legislation Database for uniformity. In accordance with the practice of the same Database, each law is dated by the year of last amendment. The Unification Legislation Database updates its legislation every week with corrections of typographical errors or other more substantive amendments. These updates are checked and required amendments are made on a regular basis.
Translations used by the DPRK government are preferred. The government’s own translation of the Socialist Constitution with 2014 amendments was used in updating the translation for the 2020 amendments. The main other trusted source is the Naver dictionary in both Korean-English and Korean-Korean.
To ensure that translation is uniform across time and laws, Law and North Korea is compiling a contemporaneous living glossary.
English-language translations of South Korean laws are available at the Korea Legislative Research Institute or at the Ministry of Government Legislation National Law Information Center.
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