According to the report by Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), since revising the criminal law in May 2022, North Korea has further amended it three times, including the latest revision in December 2023, Yonhap news agency reported.

North Korea newly added five criminal charges that could lead to the death penalty as a maximum sentence, when compared with the revisions in the penal code between May 2022 and December 2023, according to the report.

Anti-state propaganda and agitation acts, as well as illegal manufacturing, use and transfer of weapons, ammunition and explosives, fall under such charges.

The report said that North Korea seems to be strengthening state control and punishment over the management of ammunition and explosives in a bid to help fulfil the country's five-year weapons development project and better protect the North's leader Kim Jong-un and his family.

"North Korea has revised the criminal law in a way that bolsters the regime's security," it said, adding that the move points to instability in the North Korean regime.

Meanwhile, KINU said that North Korea had erased unification-related clauses in the penal code even before a key party meeting in December 2023, when Kim Jong-un defined inter-Korean ties as those between "two states hostile to each other."

At a year-end party meeting, Kim said that there was no point seeking reconciliation and unification with South Korea, calling for removing unification references.