Explanation and evaluation of recent changes in North Korea’s power elite 

Cheong Seong-Chang 

(softpower@sejong.org)

Director of the Center for North Korean Studies,  

The Sejong Institute 

English Abstract

North Korea held an expanded meeting of the party's Central Committee on June 29th  and dismissed Choe Sang-gon, a party secretary who was in charge of quarantine policy, demoted Ri Pyong-chol, a vice chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, for failing to properly implement Kim Jong-un's instructions to provide wartime reserve rice to North Korean residents, promoted the party's international director and executive director to a member of the Political Bureau, and elected four deputy ministers as political bureau candidates. Kim Jong-un's reshuffle is interpreted as a sign of his intention to temporarily focus on solving food shortages, stabilizing people's livelihood, controlling and strengthening public relations amid the prolonged COVID-19 crisis, and long-term border closure.