\n\n“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is rewiring his nation\u2019s government to operate less like a dictator\u2019s playground and more like an organization that can handle multiple crises at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to reports this week from CNN<\/a>, Reuters<\/a>, and other media outlets, Kim appointed a de facto second-in-command back in January to help lead the country\u2019s ruling Workers\u2019 Party of Korea. As \u201cfirst secretary,\u201d a title Kim himself held from 2012 to 2016 (he assumed the grander role of \u201cgeneral secretary<\/a>\u201d in January 2021), this as-yet-unknown person will serve as the despot\u2019s \u201crepresentative\u201d to the WPK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experts were quick to say this person won\u2019t actually be North Korea\u2019s second-in-command. It\u2019s at best a kind of executive secretary role, someone who has the authority to handle day-to-day party operations but not the power to make key decisions without the boss\u2019s say-so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt means no change to [Kim\u2019s] status as the supreme leader of North Korea, but it will mean a change in his leadership style,\u201d said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a Seoul-based fellow at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, DC. In fact, \u201cKim technically always has had a \u2018second-in-command\u2019 in every party, state, and military institution,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new and unprecedented role, then, isn\u2019t really about some already prominent North Korean official gaining more authority. Rather, it\u2019s Kim\u2019s latest reform to ensure his regime can handle all affairs of state without his consistent, direct input.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt should suggest to us that Kim is doing things internally,\u201d said Ken Gause, director of the adversary analytics program at the CNA, a Virginia-based think tank. \u201cHe\u2019s changing this regime and making it a more normalized organization.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n