As of 2014, many changes are being operated in the North Korean leadership through changes within the key political organisations of the country (personnal changes in the Secretariat of the Central Committee and in the National Defense Commission have been done in April 2014). The North Korean leadership is composed of three generation of leaders who are connected to the Kim Jong-un’s family. Those who are biologically belonging to the Kim family are the most important. Since the creation of North Korea, we can remark that Kim’s family members were always safe (they were very rarely purged) and maintained their positions in the North Korean system (for example the former wife of Kim Il-sung was at the head of the Democratif Federation of Women of North Korea between 1971 and 1993, the younger brother of Kim Il-sung, Kim Yong-ju is a vice secretariat of the Supreme People Assembly since 1993). The family of Kims represents a kind of inner team which is managing an external team of people who must be loyal toward the Kim’s family and who must obey to the policy settled by the Kim family. I would like to present today these two teams of North Korean leaders.

The inner team

As of April 2014, the inner team (the de facto Kim Jong-un family) securized key posts in the North Korean political structures. These people are biologically associated to the Kim family. They are controlling the following key political structures:

–     The National Defense Commission (which was enhanced as a top organ by the constitution of 1998)
–     The Workers’ Party of Korea: the North Korean communist Party which is managing structures.
–     The North Korean ministerial Cabinet:  an organisation affiliated to the North Korean communist Party which (through its ministries) is managing a large number of North Korean companies.
–     The Army: the KPA army is managed by the ministry of the KPA (the KPA ministry is Jang Jong-nam: a puppet of Kim Jong-un)

The inner team

The external team

The external team is a gremium of people who are connected to the Kim’s family. They are loyal toward the leader however they are not connected by blood to Kim Jong-un. These advisors are loyal toward Kim Jong-un and accept the rotation of their responsabilities (they have a political and economical carrier in different structures of the DPRK political system, they may have been regional WPK secretaries, former ministers and managers of companies). These people (and their families) belong to the top leadership of the DPRK.

The external team (selected people)

Abbreviations used

CC                           Central Committee
DPRK                     Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
KPA                        Korean People’s Army
WPK                       Workers’ Party of Korea
NDC                        National Defense Commission
PB                           Political Bureau
SPA                        Supreme People’s Assembly

Catégories :ArticlesÉtiquettes : DPRK, North Korea, North Korean