North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivers an opening address during the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thusday. Yonhap
North Korea reshuffled the leadership of its ruling party’s highest decision-making body at its ninth party congress, signaling changes within the power elite and a recalibration of its approach toward South Korea, the North's state media reported Friday.
According to Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency, the executive presidium of the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea consists of 39 members, including leader Kim Jong-un, the same number as at the Eighth Congress five years ago. However, 23 of them — roughly 59 percent — have been replaced.
The order in which senior officials were announced also changed. Prime Minister Pak Thae-song was listed ahead of Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly, reversing the protocol observed at the previous gathering.
The reshuffle swept out several longtime power brokers who were considered part of the old guard, most notably Kim Yong-chol, the hard-line former intelligence chief and nuclear negotiator whose influence has waned since the collapse of the 2019 Hanoi summit.
Also departing were Pak Pong-ju, a veteran economic reformer and former premier; O Su-yong, the party’s longtime economic overseer; and Choe Hwi, a key architect of the regime’s propaganda and sports diplomacy.
Close aides to Kim, including Jo Yong-won, the party’s secretary for organizational affairs and de facto second-in-command, kept his seat on the powerful presidium, as did Ri Il-hwan, the secretary for publicity and information. They were joined by Pak Jong-chon, the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and a key architect of the North’s missile modernization, whose survival underscores the leader’s unwavering commitment to his military doctrine.
While the overhaul has been described as a generational shift, analysts say it also reflects Kim Jong-un’s effort to reinforce loyalty at the top of the political system.
Yang Moo-jin, a senior professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said the changes appear to be driven less by age than by allegiance to Kim.
Officials of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party of Korea bow to the late former leaders Kim Il-sung, left, and Kim Jong-il at the party's congress, held in Pyongyang, Thursday, in this image captured from the Korean Central Television. Yonhap
Source: Korea Times News
