김정은 후계체계의 공식화와 북한 권력체계 변화

Abstract

First of all, this paper dealt with the issues, which emerged in the course of studying the question of North Korea’s leadership succession, namely, the issues regarding the overestimation of Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, and Jang Song-taek, Kim’s brother-in-law, plus the underestimation of Kim Jong-un, Kim’s third son. This work was followed by the comparison of the process of North Korea’s establishment of a scheme for Kim Jong-un’s leadership succession with that for Kim Jong-il. This process breaks down into four stages: their preliminary training, their designation as heir-apparent, the internal formalization of their successorship and the external formalization of their successorship. Most likely, the Third Conference of the Workers’ Party of (North) Korea (WPK) had two objectives. One of them is to appoint Kim Jong-un as vice chairman of the WPK Central Military Commission, a key office of the North Korean regime, and declare his status as successor-designate to the international community. Another one is to reorganize the party’s command tower, elevate the party’s status and increase its role in a way to entrust Kim Jong-un with the authority to control and rule the state, the army and the whole society. The landmark party conference has taken measures aimed not only at raising the status of the Politburo and the Secretariat of the WPK Central Committee but at assigning all of key army commanders to the WPK Central Military Commission in a move to make it more efficient in commanding the North Korean army than the National Defense Commission. Hereafter, the WPK Central Military Commission will likely play a more important role than ever in the course of Kim Jong-un’s demonstration of Songun (military-first) politics and his succession to power.