Last week’s first session of the 14th SPA and a high-level 4th Plenum of the 7th WPK Central Committee were, as usual, marked by a reshuffle of top officials.

While key players in North Korean can be demoted or promoted at pretty much any time, established tradition dictates that it is preferable to use meetings of North Korea’s ceremonial assemblies as venues to declare who is in, who is up, and who is out.

In most cases, such reshuffles, despite being very interesting to media, are of little serious value to North Korea