North Korean House of Cards

2. The Leadership System under Kim Jong-un
In the months after Kim Jong-il’s stroke in August 2008, the regime began
to grapple with the implications of his leadership model, which was informal in its
structure, tied solely to one man, and characterized by multiple lines of competing
reporting chains that served the role of balancing power. How would it be possible
to pass this model to a new leader who lacked Kim Jong’il’s connections and power?
When Kim’s choice of his third son, Kim Jong-un, as his successor became known
within leadership circles in 2009, these issues became magnified. Not only was
Kim Jong-un in his late 20s, but he had also only been involved in regime affairs
for a few years.
a. Reviving the Party
In order to address this challenge, Kim Jong-il adopted a two-pronged
strategy. First, he took steps to create a formal structure around the heir apparent
by reviving the Party leadership apparatus. 270 The Third Party Conference in
September 2010 announced new appointments to the Politburo, Secretariat, CMC,
and the Central Committee. These new appointments revitalized the moribund
Party structure and gave Kim Jong-un an extensive bureaucracy dedicated to policy
oversight. The fact that these leadership bodies would now meet on a regular basis
and issue directives would give an air of legitimacy to decisions that Kim Jong-un
would make in the future.
The Party Conference also attempted to fuse Songun politics and the Dang
jung-ang to create a sustainable leadership that would support the succession. 271 The
CMC was newly defined in the Party Charter as “organizing and leading all military
operations.” 272 Furthermore, the new charter stipulated that the Chairman of the
Commission position would be concurrently held by the Party’s General Secretary.
This upgrade suggested that the Party’s military body would become a critical institution
from which the heir apparent might consolidate his power. The move would
allow him to control both the Party and the military when he eventually became
General Secretary. Finally, a reference to Songun politics was inserted into the charter,
which then read, “the Party will establish military-first politics as a basic political
270 Cho Young-Seo, “The Distinctive Nature of the Kim Jong-un Regime in North Korea and
Prospects for its Change,” Yonhap News Agency Agency: Vantage Point 36, No. 9 (September 2013).
271 Dang jung-ang is the designation for the heir apparent.
272 The current status of the KWP CMC remains a point of contention among Pyongyang-watchers.
Some believe that the CMC was placed back under the Central Committee.
Ken E. Gause
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