North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

DPRK Constitution Turns 50

View of the Mansudae Assembly Hall on 26 December 2022 during a meeting marking the 50th anniversary of North Korea’s constitution (Photo: KCNA).

A meeting commemorating the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of the DPRK Constitution was held at Mansudae Assembly Hall on 26 December (Monday).  According to DPRK state media, the meeting “marked a significant occasion which solemnly declared once again at home and abroad that the Socialist Constitution, the Chuch’e-oriented political char and the code of the people firmly guaranteeing the prosperity of our great state and its farsighted plan, will be immortal along with the sacred history of the revolutionary leader of the party and the absolute prestige of the dignified People’s Republic.”

View of senior DPRK officials on the platform of a meeting commemorating the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of the DPRK Socialist Constitution in Pyongyang on 26 December 2022 (Photo: KCNA).

Kim Jong Un (KJU; Kim Cho’ng-u’n) came out to the meeting platform and participants “raised loud cheers of ‘Hurrah!’ looking up to him who comprehensively clarified the idea and theory of building the Chuch’e-oriented socialist law in the new era with his rare wisdom and seasoned leadership and energetically led the work to make our law truly contribute to building an independent state and ensuring the rights and interests of the people, thus remarkably strengthening the might of our nation and social system.”

Also attending the meeting from the platform were: DPRK Premier Kim Tok Hun (Kim Tok-hun), Workers’ Party of Korea [WPK] Secretary for Organizational Affairs Jo Yong Won (Cho Yo’ng-wo’n), State Affairs Commission [SAC] 1st Vice President and Supreme People’s Assembly [SPA] Standing Committee Chairman Choe Ryong Hae (Ch’oe Ryong-hae), WPK Secretary for Military Affairs and Central Military Commission [CMC] Vice Chairman Pak Jong Chon (Pak Cho’ng-ch’o’n), WPK Secretary for Defense Industry Ri Pyong Chol (Ri Pyo’ng-ch’o’l), WPK Secretary for Publicity and Information (Propaganda and Agitation) Ri Il Hwan (Ri Il-hwan), WPK Auditing Commission Chairman Kim Jae Ryong (Kim Chae-ryong), WPK Secretary for Economic Affairs Jon Hyon Chol (Chon Hyon-ch’o’l), WPK Secretary for Science and Education Pak Thae Song (Pak T’ae-so’ng), WPK Vice Premier and State Planning Chairman Pak Jong Gun (Pak Cho’ng-kun), Minister of Defense Ri Yong Gil (Ri Yo’ng-kil), Korean People’s Army [KPA] General Political Bureau Director Jong Kyong Thaek (Cho’ng Kyo’ng-t’aek), former WPK United Front Department [UFD] Director Kim Yong Chol (Kim Yo’ng-ch’o’l), DPRK Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui (Ch’oe Son-hu’i), WPK Military Affairs Department [MAD] Director O Il Jong (O Il-cho’ng), WPK Auditing Commission Vice Chairman and WPK Disciplinary Investigations Department Director Pak Thae Dok (Pak T’ae-tok), WPK Legal Affairs (Prosecutors) Department Director Kim Hyong Sik (Kim Hyong-sik), WPK Munitions Industry Department Director Jo Chun Ryong (Cho Chun-ryong), WPK Light Industry Department Director Han Kwang Sang (Han Kwang-sang), WPK Agriculture Department Director Ri Chol Man (Ri Ch’o’l-man), WPK International Affairs Department Director Kim Song Nam (Kim So’ng-nam), WPK Publicity and Information [PAD] Department Deputy Director and KJUPS deputy chief Kim Yo Jong (Kim Yo’-cho’ng), Chief of the KPA General Staff Ri Thae Sop (Ri T’ae-sop), WPK UFD Department Director Ri Son Gwon (Ri Son-kwon), DPRK Vice Premier Yang Sung Ho (Yang Sung-ho), DPRK Vice Premier and Agriculture Commission Chairman Ju Chol Gyu (Chu Ch’o’l-kyu), Minister of State Security Ri Chang Dae, Minister of Public Security Pak Su Il (Pak Su-il), DPRK Central Public Prosecutors’ Office Director U Sang Chol (U Sang-ch’o’l) and Pyongyang WPK City Committee Chief Secretary Kim Yong Hwan.

Overview of the venue of a national meeting marking the 50th anniversary of the DPRK Constitution at Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang on 26 December 2022 (Photo: KCNA).

Also in attendance were leading cadres and chief functionaries of DPRK, WPK and KPA institutions, participants in the 6th plenum of the 8th WPK Central Committee, deputies to the SPA and officials and cadres in the DPRK’s legal and judicial communities.  The meeting participants “expressed their firm determination to fulfill their responsibility and duty in making our law truly contribute to realizing the people-first idea of the Workers’ Party of Korea both in name and reality with a single mind, true to the idea and leadership of Kim Jong Un.”

Choe Ryong Hae, Member of the Political Bureau Presidium, 1st Vice President of State Affairs and Chairman of the Supreme People’s Assembly Standing Committee reads out the anniversary report on 26 December 2022 (Photo: Rodong Sinmun).

Choe Ryong Hae read out an anniversary report.  In the report he said that the “Socialist Constitution of the DPRK worked out by President Kim Il Sung (Kim Il-so’ng) is the most popular and revolutionary code embodying the immortal Chuch’e idea and an original political charter unprecedented in the world history of constitution” and referred “to the fact that the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK has fully demonstrated the advantages and great vitality as the code of the great leader, the code of the people and the code of the revolution in the complicated revolutionary struggle that has lasted for centuries.”  The reported noted that a “new chapter of building the socialist law in the new era of the Chuch’e revolution has been opened and a great change has been brought about in the development of the state.”

Choe’s said that the “rapid development of the DPRK aspiring after mightiness, advancement and modernity is being steadily pushed forward under the strong legal guarantee and out state-first principle is being developed into an all-people ideology and emotion…this reality is a brilliant fruition of the outstanding leadership of the respected comrade Kim Jong Un, who clearly resolved the theoretical and practical issues arising in the building of the Chuch’e-based law.  Our constitution will as ever successfully carry out its historic mission as a weapon powerfully propelling the cause of building a powerful country.”

Choe Ryong Hae, in his report, expressed “warm support for the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK, the most advantageous and powerful in the world, reflecting the will of all the Korean people.”  He called “for more dynamically struggling for the eternal prosperity of our great country, our noble idea and our sacred cause by holding fast to the Chuch’e-oriented Socialist Constitution as its only weapon.  It is a great honor and pride of our state and people to have the great political charter to firmly support Korean-style socialism and push it to realizing the far-reaching ideal until the day of building a communist society.”

Information

This article was written on 28 Dec 2022, and is filled under Central Auditing Commission, Central Committee, Central Military Committee, Choe Ryong Hae, Choe Son Hui (FA), Col. Gen. O Il Jong, Col. Gen. Pak Jong Chon, Col. Gen. Pak Su Il (GSD/MPS), dprk attorneys, DPRK Cabinet, DPRK Central Court (Supreme Court), DPRK Constitution, DPRK Legal System, DPRK Supreme Prosecutor's Office (DPRK Central Public Prosecutor's Office), Events Management Section, Executive Policy Bureau, Five Year Plan (2021), Gen. Kim Yong Chol, Gen. Ri Pyong Chol, Gen. Ri Yong Gil, gsd, Guard Command, Han Kwang Sang, ideological slogans, internal security, International Affairs Department WPK, Jo Chun Ryong, Jo Yong Won, Jon Hyon Chol (DPRKCVP), Jong Kyong Thaek (State Security), Ju Chol Gyu (VP/Agriculture Commission), Kim Chong-un inspections, Kim Hyong Sik (WPK CC Legal Affairs Department), Kim Jae Ryong (Jagang WPK Provincial Committee Chief Secretary), Kim Jong Un Visits, Kim Jong-un, Kim Song Nam (IAD), Kim Tok Hun, Kim Yo Jong, Kim Yo-chong, Kim Yong Hwan (PY Party), KJU Personal Secretariat, Korean People's Army (KPA), Korean Workers' Party (KWP), KPA General Political Bureau, KPA General Political Department, KPA General Staff, Main Office of Adjutants (Central Party Office #6), military security command [msc], Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ministry of people's security, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of State Security, Ministry of the People's Armed Forces (MPAF), O Il Jong, O Su Yong, Organization and Guidance Department, Pak Jong Gun (SPCC-DPRKCVP), Pak Su Il (MPS/corps), Pak Tae Dok (N. Hwanghae WPK), Political Bureau, Propaganda and Agitation Department, Provincial Party Committees, Pyongyang Defense Command, Ri Chang Dae (SSD), Ri Chol Man (DPRK Vice Premier/Minister of AG), Ri Il Hwan, Ri Son Gwon (CPRC/UFD), Ri Thae Sop (MPS/corps), Second Economic Committee, Secretariat, State Affairs Commission, State Security Department, Supreme People's Assembly, U Sang Chol (public prosecutor_, United Front Department, WPK Economic Affairs Dept, Yang Sung Ho (VP).

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