N.K. set to boost Kim Jong-un’s power in April meetings

North Korea is speeding up preparations for two significant meetings in mid-April intended to strengthen the leadership of young dictator Kim Jong-un.

The two meetings are the Workers’ Party Conference and the Supreme People’s Assembly, to be held in mid-April and on April 13, respectively, according to the North’s state-run Korea Central News Agency.

At the Workers Party meeting, Pyongyang is likely to name Kim Jong-un the General Secretary of the Workers’ Party, the highest post in the ruling party, and replace about 200 senior party members with younger equivalents, who will be then at the core of the regime, said North Korea analyst Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute.

The KCNA said on Saturday that representatives of North Korean cities and provinces have recommended candidates for new representatives of the party, who will be selected at the party conference.

At the Supreme People’s Assembly, the North’s primary legislative body, Kim could be appointed chairman of the National Defense Commission, the post held by his father Kim Jong-il.

The assembly’s major functions include adopting, amending or supplementing enactments to the constitution, setting state policy and budgets and electing the chairman, vice-chairman and members of the National Defense Commission.

Cheong noted there is also a high possibility that the North could create a new supreme post for the young Kim and abolish the post of Chairman of the National Defense Commission, as it similarly did when his grandfather Kim Il-sung died in 1994.

At that time, Pyongyang abolished the title Eternal President, which Kim Il-sung held, and created a new post, Chairman of the National Defense Commission, to confer the highest post upon the successor Jong-il.

“Although the power succession was virtually completed late last year, the upcoming two meetings will see the North officially proclaim that Kim Jong-un is their supreme leader,” Cheong said.

The two meetings come as the North plans to put a satellite into orbit on a long-range missile between April 12 and 16 in celebration of the 100th anniversary late founder Kim Il-sung’s birth, despite international condemnation.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)