September 30, 2023
Columns

Where is North Korea heading? Major political rule changes may tell us

No mention of Kims, coolness toward unification and revival of communism offer guideposts for next several years

By far the most serious revision in the new Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) rules is the creation of the “first secretary” position, along with other measures that appear to prepare for the death or incapacitation of Kim Jong Un.

But the new statutes also contain a number of other meaningful revisions that warrant consideration, including the elimination of any mention of the Kim family, the softening of Pyongyang’s rhetoric toward Seoul and the reappearance of “communism” as a part of the official state ideology.