Next time you see someone say "DPRK is a monarchy" post this:
From communism101 reddit:
Kim Sung-Il literally abolished his political seat as Premier of the DPRK, and divested the powers of that office into lower offices: the President of the SPA on the legislative side of government and the Prime Minister of the Cabinet on the administrative/executive side of government. Powers that are still centralised in singular western presidents and prime ministers to this day, but are decentralised and divested into multiple offices in Korea instead.
So Kim Sung-Il’s son, Kim Jong-Il never inherited his father’s position or “power” because said position no longer existed and Kim Jong-Il was never Presidium President or Cabinet Prime Minister, which is where those powers Kim Sung-Il held went to. Instead, after a long political career holding many different offices at varying levels, Kim Jong-Il became the General Secretariat of the WPK - a position that’s not even a governmental seat at all. If you understood ML thought, you’d understand why and how ML parties are separate from government. So Kim Jong-Il is not even in government at the height of his career and people still call him a monarch and a dictator?
Then finally, to move on to Kim Jong-un, who holds so little power that his only governmental seat (as chairman of the NDC) is literally appointed to him by the Presidium President, who once again, derived it’s powers from the abolished position of Premier of Korea. Kim Jong-un is not only not head-of-state, he only has the position he does because a higher ranking official (from outside his family, I might add) appointed him to it. That’s not the behaviour of a hereditary monarch or dictator. What kind of dictator isn’t even head-of-state or the highest ranking person in government?
Here is what the current government of north Korea looks like
There's actually three parties within the North Korean government. The workers party (communist), Chondoist Chongu party (religious buddhist party), and the Korean social democratic party which is pretty self explanatory.
The claims About only being able to vote for one person is Partial bullshit, it's missing context and explanation of the election system. The vote is to finalize a consensus made in the earlier stages of the election. It's a yes or no vote. The actual voting, decision making, campaigning happens locally and regionally. Candidates are voted on, debated, and nominated locally at first and then at larger and larger regions. The process repeats until the final candidate is voted on. If yes then he wins, if no then the process repeats. Think of it almost like a bracket tournament.
was gonna post this in c/effort but that comm disallows images
Don’t think North Korea is a monarchy. But if you are the head of the military and the head of the party which holds a permanent majority in the parliament, and hold all of these positions for life, then you hold far more practical and dictatorial power (not in a pejorative sense) in your country then Trump or Biden. Both of whom have had to deal with a divided congress, a military and intelligence bureaucracy, term limits etc. Kim Jong Un holds far more power in the North Korean political structure than any American president does within theirs.
to be fair KJU is the leader of the Workers' Party by vote, and head of the military by SPA presidential appointment. As the infographic says "all positions elected unless otherwise specified."