North Korean House of Cards

days these organizations were obligated to separately report and notify the OGD
of issues that had arisen throughout North Korea. Through the “direct reporting
system,” Kim Jong-il was notified immediately by means of communication such
as telephone or telegraph. This was used when an emergency situation or accident
occurred, when there was loss of life, or when there was a violation of the unified
thought system or unified guidance system. In the military, the “three-line, three-day
reporting notification system” referred to the Party organization channel, the GSD
channel, and the Military Security Command channel.
Image 22: A young Kim Jong-il at his desk. (Source: Osamu Eya, Great Illustrated Book of Kim
Chong-il. (Tokyo: Shogakukan, 1994))
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Kim Jong-il’s Personal Secretariat
existed alongside Kim Il-sung’s Presidential Secretariat. But unlike his father’s
office, Kim Jong-il’s office expanded as he took on more responsibilities for running
the day-to-day operations of the regime. Following Kim’s appointment to the
Politburo at the Sixth Party Congress in 1980, his office, which became a formal
bureaucratic entity called the Secretarial Office of the Central Committee (SOCC),
began to expand its power and reach. Its organizational structure included sections
that ensured communications throughout the regime, including with Central
Committee departments, the SPA, NDC, Cabinet, military, and SSD. At the time
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