North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

Premier Premiers

DPRK Premier Pak Thae Song speaks at the twelfth session of the 14th Supreme People Assembly, held 22 to 23 January 2025 (Photo: KCNA).

Newly appointed DPRK Premier Pak Thae Song (Pak T’ae-so’ng) took an oath during the 12th session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly [SPA], held 22 and 23 January.  Pak’s oath was a public act of taking ownership and responsibility for the work of the Cabinet (“I will see to it that all the Cabinet members unconditionally carry out the enormous tasks facing the economic sector at present” and “…deeply mindful of his heavy mission responsible for the country’s economic work”).

State media reporting about Pak’s pledge before the SPA reiterated the regime’s long-term goal to re-establish the Cabinet as the DPRK’s leading force  in the domestic economy and state development (“will establish a system and method for controlling the overall economy in a unified way in conformity with the economic structure and specific conditions of the country and definitely put the overall economic work under the unified guidance and strategic management of the state by further strengthening the Cabinet-responsibility system and Cabinet-centered system”) while continuing to enhance the control and interface with the party (“hold fast to the lines and policies of the Workers’ Party of Korea [WPK] as its lifeline to establish the Party’s unified leadership system more firmly in economic work and conduct economic operation and command for the implementation of the Party’s decisions in a responsible and dynamic way”).

Kim Jong Un (KJU; Kim Cho’ng-u’n) seems to have incremental expectations in policy outcomes.  The “10” in the 20 X 10 Plan, after all, gives ten years for the Cabinet and relevant organs to build up local industries in 20 North Korean locales.  However, his patience is probably not inexhaustible.  KJU and the core leadership want to see more progress across the North Korean economy in 2025, the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the WPK, to usher in the 9th Party Congress in 2026 (” glorify this significant year marking the 80th anniversary of the WPK as a year of proud victory and honorably greet the Ninth Congress of the Party”).

Pak Thae Song’s appointment during the WPK Central Committee’s 11th plenum in December 2024  was most likely done to install a more authoritative leader to lead the Cabinet and implement KJU’s aspirations.  In other words, Premier Pak was brought into crack the whip.  Pak has proven to be an effective manager for KJU.  In 2014, he was appointed chief secretary of the South P’yo’ngan WPK Provincial Committee primarily to shore up dual-use production units in the province and supervise a major renovation of the January 18 General Machinery Plant, the DPRK’s primary manufacturing base for missile and rocket engines.  Pak’s other top positions–WPK Secretary for Science and Education and SPA Chairman–along with his travel outside the country and interactions with foreign interlocutors gave him a more diverse background and sense of KJU’s bigger picture.

DPRK Premier 

Term of Office 

Hong Song Nam 

SEPT 1998-SEPT 2003 

Pak Pong Ju             SEPT 2003-APR 2007 
Kim Yong Il             APR 2007-JUN 2010 
Choe Yong Rim             JUN 2010-APR 2013 
Pak Pong Ju             APR 2013-APR 2019 
Kim Jae Ryong             APR 2019-AUG 2020 
Kim Tok Hun             AUG 2020-DEC 2024 
Pak Thae Song 

 DEC 2024 (incumbent) 

Pak’s appointment is not a knock on the job performance of his predecessor as DPRK Premier, Kim Tok Hun (Kim Tok-hun).  At the SPA session, he had a front-center place on the platform (his predecessor Jon Hyon Chol was further down).  Premier Pak’s report to the SPA largely praised the work of the Kim Tok Hun Cabinet.  Of the seven (7) North Korean elites who served as DPRK Premier during the 21st Century, Kim’s term of office is on the longer side (see above table).

WPK Secretary and WPK Economic Affairs Department Director Kim Tok Hung (right) takes notes during the twelfth session of the 14th SPA held 22 to 23 January 2025. Also in attendance is WPK Secretary for Military Affairs Marshal Pak Jong Chon (left) (KCTV screen grab).

Pak Thae Song’s remarks to the SPA and prior reporting about Cabinet-Party management there are underlying issues in the policymaking/policy execution dynamic in the DPRK Cabinet.  In his SPA report he said that Cabinet official should “do away the indifferent and self-centered practices.”  In his oath-taking remarks Pak said the Cabinet should “overcome the old-fashioned work attitude and style…in close mutual cooperation.”

These comments suggest that many senior Cabinet officials act out of their own self interests (reputation in their respective ministries or state commissions; job status; political standing; loyalties to social or patronage networks) and work at cross purposes with other Cabinet officials and institutions.  Rather than a series of sectoral silos engaging in resource and turf wars, the Cabinet needs to function as discrete government department working in a more collaborative environment for a common purpose.  Whether or not one thinks Kim Tok Hun is “a dirt spoon,” (by the spoon metric, Jo Yong Won [Cho Yo’ng-wo’n] is also a dirt spoon), he probably assumed the traits of a people pleaser and could not reconcile the combination of institutional reputation and ego within the Cabinet.

During the Central Committee plenum in December, Kim Tok Hun migrated to the Central Committee apparatus, taking the economic slot in the Secretariat and becoming WPK Economic Affairs Department Director.  After their respective appointments, KJU congratulated Pak and Kim on the platform.  State media has also shown Pak and Kim conferring and interacting with one another.  Kim may be more of an ideas man, while Pak Thae Song is a task master who happens to have more managerial experience.

 

 

New DPRK Premier Pak Thae Song and new WPK Secretary for Economic Affairs Kim Tok Hun talk with one another as they exit the WPK Central Committee plenum (Photo: KCNA).

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