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.

Taken together, these revisions paint a picture of continuing changes in North Korean