North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament has re-elected Kim Jong Un as president of state affairs, according to state media reports on Monday.
Gatekeepers News reports that Kim’s reappointment as head of the country’s highest policymaking body, the State Affairs Commission, was announced by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“The Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK reelected Comrade Kim Jong Un as President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at the First Session, the first state affairs activity of its 15th term, on March 22,” KCNA reported.
The agency added that the decision to return Kim to the “top post” reflected “the unanimous will and desire of all the Korean people.”
Critics Question Election Process
However, critics say elections in North Korea are largely symbolic and predetermined, aimed at projecting an image of democratic legitimacy for the leadership.
According to Lee Ho-ryung of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, the vote was a “highly choreographed event with a pre-determined outcome.”
“Throughout the third-generation rule, the North has staged such events to showcase a procedure in an attempt to achieve political legitimacy,” she said.
“But no one thinks any different outcome would emerge from it.”
Kim is the third-generation leader of the nuclear-armed state established by his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, in 1948. He has led the country since the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in 2011.
Assembly Session and Possible Policy Signals
Images released by KCNA showed Kim in a formal Western-style suit seated at the centre of a stage, surrounded by senior officials and positioned in front of large statues of his father and grandfather.
Ahead of the assembly session, 687 deputies were elected to the Supreme People’s Assembly. North Koreans aged 17 and above were allowed to vote by approving or rejecting a single candidate nominated by the ruling party.
KCNA earlier reported that the candidates were approved with 99.93 percent of votes in favour and 0.07 percent against, with turnout reaching 99.99 percent.
The state media also described the assembly hall in Pyongyang as being “full of the extraordinary political awareness and revolutionary enthusiasm” among the newly elected members.
Analysts say the current session could also consider constitutional amendments, including proposals that may formally define relations between North and South Korea as those between “two hostile states.”
Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said Kim’s language during his address to the assembly would serve as a “barometer” of Pyongyang’s future stance toward Seoul.
“The extent to which terms such as ‘national unification’ or ‘Korean unity’ are removed and replaced by aggressive expressions including ‘territorial control’ could serve as a barometer of his ideological framework,” he said.
He added that attention would focus on how far Kim intends to “flesh out issues of territory, territorial waters and airspace” in dealing with South Korea.
The gathering comes shortly after a five-yearly congress of North Korea’s ruling party held last month.
