The Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee (CC) is the highest organ of North Korea’s ruling party. At least on paper, plenary meetings of the CC are charged with electing the Politburo (tasked with making decisions on a more regular basis) and the party’s general secretary (its leader), as well as the secretaries that head departments of the party’s permanent bureaucracy.

In practice, the CC’s power of appointment is actually controlled by Kim Jong Un, and the appointments tell us far more about how he manages the elite class in North Korea