Constitutional framework <\/p>\n
The first constitution<\/a> of the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea was promulgated<\/a> in 1948 and was replaced with a new constitution in 1972. Revisions were made in 1992, 1998, 2009, and 2016. The 1998 amendments<\/a>, made in the years following the death of Kim Il-Sung<\/a>\u2014the country\u2019s<\/a> leader from 1948 until his death in 1994\u2014were so extensive that a preamble was added to underline the continuity<\/a> with the previous regime. The preamble concludes, \u201cThe DPRK Socialist Constitution is a Kim Il-Sung constitution which legally embodies Comrade Kim Il-Sung\u2019s Juche state construction ideology<\/a> and achievements.\u201d The 1998 revision also enshrined Kim as \u201ceternal president.\u201d The 2009 constitutional<\/a> revision enshrined as the country\u2019s highest administrative authority the supreme leader and chairman of the National Defense Commission<\/a> (NDC). That position was held by Kim Jong Il<\/a>, Kim Il-Sung\u2019s son, until his death in 2011 and by Kim Jong Il\u2019s successor, his son Kim Jong-Un<\/a>. Subsequent revisions in 2016 created the State Affairs Commission, a new body that replaced the NDC as the highest government entity and represented an expansion of the powers given to Kim as its chairman.<\/p>\n The head of government<\/a> is the premier, assisted by several vice-premiers and a cabinet, the members of which are appointed by the national legislature, the Supreme People\u2019s Assembly<\/a> (SPA). The president of the SPA is North Korea\u2019s titular<\/a> head of state. In practice, however, the government is under one-man leadership. During his lifetime, Kim Jong Il was also supreme commander of the Korean People\u2019s Army and general secretary of the Korean Workers\u2019 Party (KWP). After his death, Kim Jong-Un assumed those positions, and he was made chairman of the State Affairs Commission upon its creation.<\/p>\n The SPA, constitutionally the highest organ of state power and the primary legislative body, consists of a single chamber with 687 members elected to five-year terms by universal adult suffrage; it also has a 15-member SPA Presidium, or Standing Committee, with members chosen from within the SPA, that meets when the assembly is not in session. The SPA\u2019s regular sessions last for about a week and are convened<\/a> once or twice a year by the SPA Presidium. The Presidium handles most of the day-to-day legislative business and hence holds much power. The constitution stipulates that the SPA Presidium is the highest organ of power during the intervals between sessions of the SPA, although the Presidium remains accountable to the SPA.<\/p>\n Political power, as distinct from legislative power, is held by the Korean Workers\u2019 Party<\/a> (KWP), whose highest authority is the Party Congress, led by an elected Central Committee<\/a>. The KWP draws up lists of approved candidates for elections. Policy is directed by the KWP\u2019s political bureau (Politburo).<\/p>\n There are a number of nominal<\/a> political parties and social organizations that serve to support the KWP. All political activities, however, are directed by the KWP or require its sanction and must closely follow the party line and policies. Elections provide a means whereby assent is registered for the policies and programs of the party. There is seldom more than one candidate on the ballot for each constituency<\/a>, and the electoral system<\/a> is completely controlled by the party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Constitutional framework The first constitution of the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea was promulgated in 1948 and was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[170,1252,1251,1250,31,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-7769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-north-korea","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-britannica","10":"tag-encyclopeadia","11":"tag-encyclopedia","12":"tag-korea","13":"tag-north-korea"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}