North Korean House of Cards

the connections between the larger regime, the Supreme Leader, and these institutions
are frequently shifting as individual leaders and organizations within the regime rise
and fall. In particular, changes regarding the police agencies following the elimination
of the KWP Administrative Department have drawn great attention.
In his book on the North Korean police state published in 2012, Coercion,
Control, Surveillance, and Punishment: An Examination of the North Korean Police
State, the author laid out the organizational structure of the police agencies in detail.
This analysis will be updated and expanded below to include an examination of the
KWP OGD and the GC. These two organizations, along with the SSD, MPS, and
MSC, make up North Korea’s internal security apparatus, which is dedicated to the
preservation of the regime and the continuation of Kim family rule.
a. KWP Organization and Guidance Department
The Central Committee of the KWP is made up of more than thirty
departments that conduct its day-to-day operations. The most important of these
departments, considered by many Pyongyang-watchers to be the Supreme Leader’s
most critical lever of power, is the KWP OGD (Jo-jik Ji-do-bu). Initially a division
within the KWP General Affairs Department, it was made an independent
“Organization Committee” at the Third Plenary Session of the Second Central
Committee in 1946, which was chaired by Kim Il-sung. It was transformed into
the KWP Organization Department in 1952 under Pak Yong-bin, who held
the position until 1959, when it was transferred to Kim Yong-ju, Kim Il-sung’s
younger brother, and became the KWP Organization and Guidance Department
(OGD). In 1974, Kim Jong-il replaced his uncle as Director of the OGD. Since
then, no director has been publicly identified.
The KWP OGD serves various roles and missions. First and foremost, it
is responsible for upholding the “Ten Principles for Establishment of the Party’s
Monolithic Ideological System” laid down by Kim Jong-il, which essentially
guarantees the Supreme Leader’s absolute control. 558 As part of this system, Kim
Jong-il created a daily reporting system whereby relevant sections of the OGD,
at all levels of administration, provide reports up the chain of command. The
headquarters of the OGD in Pyongyang then passes these reports to the Supreme
558 At his father’s instructions, Kim Jong-il introduced the “Ten Principles for Establishment of
the Party’s Monolithic Ideological System” in 1974. This reporting system enabled him to successfully
lead the “revolution” launched by Kim Il-sung. These ten Party tenets obligated people to report even the
most trivial activities of all organizations via the KWP OGD, thus creating the internal Party conditions
favorable for closely monitoring the evolving opinions of all cadres and generals.
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
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