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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during the fourth session of the 13th Supreme People’s Assembly on June 29

The first session of North Korea’s 14th Supreme People’s Assembly, which is scheduled for Apr. 11, is expected to confirm or expand leader Kim Jong-un’s titles while also filling key positions such as prime minister of the cabinet, said an official in South Korea’s Unification Ministry. The session, which marks the first meeting of the 687 representatives who were elected to five-year terms on Mar. 10, will unveil the leading figures of the second phase of Kim Jong-un’s regime. Global observers are watching to see whether Kim will take advantage of the session, which will be held shortly before the South Korea-US summit in Washington, DC, to send a message to other countries and, if so, what that message might be.

The Supreme People’s Assembly is the North Korean equivalent of South Korea’s National Assembly; its representatives are comparable with South Korea’s assembly members.

“The Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim Jong-un held a meeting this morning commemorating the seventh anniversary of his appointment as supreme leader of the party and the government, which suggests that we’re going to see some title announcements,” an official with the Unification Ministry said on Apr. 9.

“We mean to focus on that possibility since Kim wasn’t included on the list of representatives,” the official added. The election on Mar. 10 was the first time that Kim didn’t run for a seat in the Supreme National Assembly since becoming the country’s supreme leader.

Kim was given the title of “first chair of the National Defense Commission” in the 5th session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly (Apr. 13, 2012) and was reappointed to the same position in the 1st session of the 13th Supreme People’s Assembly (Apr. 9, 2014). During the 4th session of the 13th Supreme People’s Assembly (June 29, 2016), shortly after the 7th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Kim was newly appointed as “chair of the State Affairs Commission.”

The big question is what titles Kim will receive during this session. Generally speaking, three scenarios are in the offing. In the first scenario, Kim would be reappointed to his current position as chair of the State Affairs Commission, without revising the North Korean constitution.

In the second scenario, the constitution would be revised to make the State Affairs Commission chair not only North Korea’s “supreme leader” (according to Article 100) but also its “head of state,” the person who represents the government. Under the current constitution, North Korea’s head of state is the president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, a position currently held by Kim Yong-nam.

Worth noting in connection with this are remarks made by North Korea’s newly appointed ambassador to Finland while he was presenting his credentials to the Finnish president. According to an Apr. 9 report in the state-run Rodong Sinmun, Ambassador Ri Won-guk “communicated warm greetings from State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un to the president [of Finland].” Compared with the pattern previously used by North Korean media when reporting the appointment of ambassadors, this was the first time that Kim Jong-un’s title of “our beloved supreme leader” was replaced with “State Affairs Commission Chairman.”

“This appears to be an attempt to strengthen [Kim Jong-un’s] power by transferring the role and authority of the head of state, hitherto held by Kim Yong-nam, to the State Affairs Commission chair,” said Hong Min, director of the North Korea research office at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU).

“Considering that Chairman Kim Jong-un effectively holds all the power [in North Korea], this could be an attempt to shift the focus to state-to-state diplomacy by integrating the de facto head of state and the titular head of state,” Hong said, noting that this would represent a shift away from the party-to-party diplomacy that has been the traditional method used in the socialist bloc.

In the third scenario, Kim would be granted a new supreme title along with those he already holds. While some have raised the possibility that Kim could be called “president,” this is unlikely, since North Korean founder Kim Il-sung is enshrined in the North Korean constitution as “eternal president.”

When asked about the possibility of Kim sending a message intended for a foreign audience during the session, the Unification Ministry official said that “such a message has never been sent before, but it wouldn’t be surprising. We’ll have to wait and see.”

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter, and Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]