hankyoreh

By Park Byung-soo, staff writer

The curtain is officially up on the Kim Jong-un regime in North Korea. Kim Jong-un was appointed first secretary of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) at the fourth party representatives’ meeting Wednesday in Pyongyang. He was also promoted from vice-chairman to chairman of the Central Military Commission. At the same gathering, the late Kim Jong-il was named “eternal general secretary.”

North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency announced Wednesday afternoon that Kim Jong-un’s appointment was made to “honor the last wishes of Comrade Kim Jong-il.”

The agency also said the meeting was intended “to honor Comrade Kim Jong-il eternally as general secretary of the Workers Party of Korea.”

The meeting also saw the election of WPK central committee secretary Choi Ryong-hae as a standing member of the central committee’s politburo and vice chairman of the CMC. The son of former Minister of People’s Armed Forces Choi Hyon, Choi has emerged as one of the key figures in the Kim Jong-un regime.

Meanwhile, current Minister of People’s Armed Forces Kim Jong-gak and National Defense Commission (NDC) vice chairman Jang Sung-taek were elected to the party central committee’s politburo, and party central committee vice chairperson Kim Kyong-hui was elected committee secretary.

Analysts said the naming of Kim Jong-il as “eternal general secretary” appeared to be aimed at shoring up the Kim Jong-un regime by underscoring the power of the Kim dynasty, Jong-un’s main source of legitimacy.

Initially, Kim Jong-un was expected to be named general secretary at the meeting, but North Korea surprised experts by leaving that position vacant.

Regarding the decision to make Kim Jong-il the eternal general secretary, the KCNA reported that the meeting‘s representatives decided to make his last instructions into “doctrinal guidelines” for the WPK and to “carry on honoring Comrade Kim Jong-il’s revolutionary life and immortal achievements forever.”

In 1994, North Korea elected Kim Il-sung as “eternal president” and applied his last instructions to get through its so-called “March of Tribulation,” a period that saw unprecedented food shortages.

The KCNA reported that amendments to party regulations and organizational changes were passed at Wednesday’s meeting. The position of first secretary, granted to Kim Jong-un, did not exist previously.

The details of the amendments were not announced, but analysts believe they included the addition of provisions shifting most of the general secretary’s authority to the newly created first secretary position, as well as changes to the organization along these lines. In particular, they said that provisions for the general secretary’s simultaneous status as CMC chairman were altered to give the first secretary that status.

With Wednesday’s meeting, Pyongyang appears to have wrapped up its efforts to establish the new regime. Once administrative changes and legislative amendments are completed at a Friday meeting of the Supreme People‘s Assembly, the regime will have shed its provisional character, four months after Kim Jong-il’s death.

Attention is now focusing on whether Kim Jong-un will take over as NDC chairman, the country’s most powerful position.

The timetable for the regime’s consolidation has been brought forward from the time of Kim Il-sung‘s death in 1994. Kim Jong-il brought a formal end to his period of governing according to his father’s principles in 1997 when he acceded to the post of general secretary after a three-year mourning period.

Analysts are predicting the Kim Jong-un regime will set the main tasks of building relations with China to reduce North Korea’s isolation, while pursuing economic development and stronger domestic controls.

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