The 8th plenary congress of the Workers’ Party has been held since Jan. 5. The picture shows Kim Jong-un’s speech being broadcast on a TV wall at a Seoul railway station.
Leader Kim Jong-un was elected as general secretary at the 8th National Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea meeting. This is the first time Kim Jong-un has been given the title of general secretary since he came to power. Kim Jong-un’s sibling Kim Yo-jung, on the other hand, was removed from the alternate members of the Politburo and was not included in the list of ministers.
The Workers’ Party has held its 8th plenary congress since the 5th. The Yonhap News Agency quoted the Korean Central News Agency as reporting on the 11th that Kim Jong Un was elected as the general secretary of the Workers’ Party at the 8th congress of the party on the 10th.
The report noted that Cho Yong Won, who is considered a close friend of Kim Jong Un, was elected as a standing member of the Politburo, which currently consists of five people, including him, including Kim Jong Un, Choe Ryong Hae, Ri Byung Chol and Kim Deok Sul.
The changes in personnel in charge of foreign affairs are also under scrutiny. First Minister of Foreign Affairs Choi Sun-hee, who is in charge of affairs with the U.S., was demoted from a member of the Party Central Committee to an alternate member; First Vice Minister of International Affairs Kim Sung-nam, who is in charge of relations with China, was promoted to minister, and Foreign Minister Lee Sun-kwon maintained his position as an alternate member of the Politburo.
Kim Young-chul, the party’s vice chairman in charge of issues with South Korea, was not included in the party’s secretary list, but only in the party’s ministerial list; Jang Kim-teok, the united front minister, was removed from the ministerial list.
The Yonhap News Agency reported that the Labor Party originally had 10 vice chairmen, but now the number has been reduced to seven, eliminating those in charge of the South Korea and foreign affairs, and Kim Young-chul, who is in charge of the South Korea issue, has not been promoted to party secretary, but only to party minister, indicating that the Labor Party may abolish the secretary of the South Korea affairs, leaving only the party minister position.
After Kim Jong-un took power at the end of 2011, the 4th Plenum held in April 2012 elected Kim Jong-un as the first secretary of the Workers’ Party, calling his father and former leader Kim Jong-il “General Secretary of the Workers’ Party forever”; Kim Jong-un’s title was later changed to chairman in 2016 with the abolition of the secretary bureau, and was again changed to general secretary after the restoration of the secretary bureau system at this Plenum.
In this personnel change, First Vice Minister Kim Woong-jung, who has replaced his older brother many times since 2020 and is regarded as “Kim Jong-un’s spokesman,” has unexpectedly disappeared from the list of alternate members of the Politburo, where he had a seat, and is not included in the list of Labor Party ministers.
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