The following article is a column by Fyodor Tertitskiy, a leading researcher at Seoul’s Kookmin University and author of the book, “North Korea before Kim Il Sung.” 

The ongoing Eighth Party Congress has seen a wave of change crash down on North Korea’s top leadership, including the demotion of Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong. But the biggest news to come out of the Party Congress is word of Kim Jong Un’s promotion from chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) to general secretary – a title that had been posthumously and “eternally” granted to his late