This is part of a larger series examining some of North Korea’s key state institutions. The series has also covered the State Affairs Commission, as well as the Central Military Commission.

Communist countries are often described as one-party states, but a more precise term would be “party-state.”

The reason for this is that the ruling organization is not a political party in a traditional sense of word – it is not a community of people united by a leader or an idea (as it normally is in a multi-party state) nor it is a community