[Yonhap News Photo ]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has secured the stewardship of a new powerful state body, consolidating his deified one-man rule over the nuclear-armed country in name and reality.
The North's rubber-stamp parliament, in a session on late Wednesday, approved the creation of the Commission on State Affairs (CSA) chaired by Kim that would replace the National Defense Commission (NDC), a transcendental junta-style organization.
The new commission plays a broader role than the NSC through which Kim's late father, Kim Jong-il, had ruled the country. The young leader had been the first NDC chairman with its top post reserved for his father who had advocated his trademark "Songun (army-first) policy.
Analysts said Wednesday's decision by the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) means Kim has completed the restructuring of North Korea's power structure. "The new commission will serve as North Korea's supreme governing body," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.
At a party congress in May, Kim was elected as chairman of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, replacing his previous designation of the party's first secretary. He has already secured various top titles since he took power in December 2011, but the country's highest posts including presidency have been reserved for his father and grandfather.
The new commission will be supported by three vice chairmen -- Hwang Pyong-so, director of the general political bureau of North Korea's armed forces, Choe Ryong-hae, a vice chairman of the party's central committee, and Premier Pak Bong-ju.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
