Seoul (AFP) June 30, 2016 – North Korea has created a new, supreme governing commission with leader Kim Jong-Un as its chairman, underlining the 33-year-old’s absolute power and control over every aspect of state policy in the isolated, nuclear-armed nation.
The country’s legislative body, the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), unanimously voted Kim as head of the State Affairs Commission on Wednesday, the North’s official KCNA news agency said.
The new agency replaces the National Defense Commission as the country’s highest branch of government and supreme policymaking organization.
Nominating Kim for the post, SPA president Kim Yong-Nam said it was the “unshakable faith and unswerving will of all service personnel and people of the country to uphold Kim Jong-Un … at the top post of the DPRK”.
DPRK is the official acronym for North Korea.
Cheong Seong-Chang, a North Korea expert at the Sejong Institute think-tank in Seoul, said the move effectively raised Kim Jong-Un to the post of supreme head of state.
“It’s commensurate with the title of ‘President of the Republic’ given to (his grandfather) Kim Il-Sung in 1972,” Cheong said Thursday.
Kim Il-Sung was declared North Korea’s “eternal president” following his death in 1994.
Kim Jong-Un bears a striking resemblance to his grandfather — a similarity he has played up in a clear attempt to co-opt Kim Il-Sung’s legacy.