Choe Ryong-hae Pak Pong-ju



By Jun Ji-hye

Wrapping up a four-day-long congress of the ruling Workers' Party, Monday, North Korea announced through its state media the election of two more members to the standing committee of the party's politburo. They are Premier of the Cabinet Pak Pong-ju and party secretary Choe Ryong-hae.

The appointments raised the number of standing members from three to five.

The existing three members include leader Kim Jong-un, parliamentary head Kim Yong-nam and Hwang Pyong-so, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army (KPA).

The standing members of the politburo occupy core positions that control and manage the North's policies and personnel.

Experts say that Kim Jong-un's decision to raise the number of standing members was apparently aimed at further bolstering the young leader's grip on power as well as delivering a message to other officials that if they are loyal to the leader, they will reap rewards.

"Looking at the newly formed leadership of the party, it is forecast that Kim's leadership style and direction of managing state affairs, which he has shown over the past five years, will not change," Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University, told reporters.

Kim Yong-nam, 88, who has been second in line in the Kim regime, has been called "just a figurehead" as his real power is regarded as comparatively weak. It had been expected that he would resign at the party congress as he was cited as a subject of the generational shift due to his old age.

Now that he has managed to maintain his position as a standing member, Kim Yong-nam has become the North's elder statesman who has aided all of the Kim family's leadership ― Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and now Kim Jong-un.

Hwang, 76, has been third in line, but cited as the de facto No.2 man in the authoritarian state. He has guarded his position without a hitch by demonstrating his loyalty to the 33-year-old leader. Hwang gave a speech praising Kim Jong-un when Kim was unanimously appointed to lead the party congress on April 14.

Pak, 77, fourth in line, who newly became a new standing member through the congress, is known to be well-versed in economic matters. Observers expect Pak to handle a five-year economic development plan unveiled by the young leader during the congress.

Choe, 66, fifth in line, also newly appointed to the standing committee, has experienced difficulties in vying with Hwang for the No.2 position ― Choe lost the director's post for the General Political Bureau of the KPA to Hwang in 2014.

Rumors abounded last year that Choe was kept out of power after it was learned that he had been sent to a reeducation farm in the northeastern part of the reclusive state for his allegedly poor work performance.

But Choe returned to central politics in December right after the North announced that Kim Yang-gon, Pyongyang's front-man on inter-Korean affairs, died in a car accident.

During the historic congress that took place 36 years after the previous event held in 1980 under Kim Il-sung, the North also elected 19 members and nine alternate members of the party's political bureau.

Among the notable decisions was Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong's appointment as one of the 19 Politburo members. Ri had guarded Kim Jong-un during his studies abroad in his youth.

But Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of the North's leader, was not mentioned on the list.

She is known to be currently serving as a vice director of the party's Propaganda and Agitation Department.

Before the congress, experts forecast her to be promoted to a ministerial-level position.