How Kim Jong-un Has Maintained Power After A Decade of Ruling North Korea

Next month Kim Jong-un will have ruled North Korea for 10 years. Yonhap has a look back at how he has increased his grip on power in North Korea:

One of the first things Kim did upon taking the throne was to restore the party system to keep the military — which had developed immense power under his father’s military-first policy — in check and give authority to the relatively young leader’s decision-making process.

In 2016, North Korea held a four-day party congress, the first of its kind in 36 years, and announced the “byongjin” policy of simultaneously pursuing nuclear weapons and economic development.

In January this year, the North held another party congress and endorsed Kim as the “general secretary,” a title previously held by his father.

Having secured a political system to back his reign, Kim had no hesitation in eliminating those who were considered obstacles to his absolute power.

One of the most high-profile incidents that contributed to Kim’s reputation on the global stage was the 2013 execution of his once-powerful uncle Jang Song-thaek on charges of treason.

In 2017, Kim’s estranged half brother, Kim Jong-nam, was poisoned to death at a Kuala Lumpur airport, an assassination also blamed on Pyongyang.

Despite the brutality, Kim used tightly-controlled state propaganda outlets to position himself as a leader devoted to improving the lives of ordinary people across the nation while seeking to makeover the North’s image into that of a “normal state.”

Kim has put his wife, Ri Sol-ju, in the public eye, unlike his father, and released images of him drinking beer and smoking with party officials.

On the diplomatic front, Kim held a historic first summit with then U.S. President Donald Trump and met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in three times in 2018.

Though the nuclear talks and inter-Korean exchanges are both at a standstill, such a meeting with a U.S. leader was touted as a major achievement of the young leader inside North Korea.

“After achieving a certain level of diplomatic accomplishments, Kim no longer had to depend on the shadows of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il to legitimize his leadership,” Cheong Seong-chang, the director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute, said. “He made that clear in the 2019 constitution revision by redacting all phrases related to his father’s military-first policy.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear that Kim Jong-un was able to increase his grip on power by neutering military leaders that could rival him and then killing anyone, even family members that could replace him.