Is the DPRK a monarchy?

{A Thread}

First off, before we get to the details, we need what consists of a Monarchy.

A Monarchy is a political system in which supreme authority is vested in the monarch, an individual ruler who functions as head of state. It typically acts as a political-administrative organization

Now, there's also something called a ”constitutional monarchy”, which is a political system in which a monarch shares power with a constitutionally organized government.

Monarchs in constitutional monarchies act as symbolic heads of state while waiving most political power. The UK can be considered a Country governed by constitutional monarchy.

Now, the Kim family is in the government, so that means they're a monarchy then. Right?!

Not quite. There's big differences between a democracy, and a monarchy.

To understand why the DPRK doesn't qualify we need to make sure what's the differences in them

A Monarchy is a political system based on the sovereignty of a single ruler. Democracy, a term that means “rule by the people,” is a political system in which laws, policies, leaders, and major state undertakings are decided directly or indirectly by the citizens.

But the DPRK is a dictatorship, that means it's not really democratic either, right?

No. The DPRK, like other countries, has a democratic system in which the people do participate in to choose the people.

Let's dive in into how it more or less their democracy works.

The DPRK has county, city, and provincial elections to the local people's assemblies, as well as national elections to the Supreme People's Assembly, their legislature. These are carried out every five years.

Candidates are chosen in mass meetings held under the ”Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland”, which also organizes the political parties in the DPRK. Citizens run under these parties or they can run as independents.

They are chosen by the people, not by the "party" (in fact, the parliament in the DPRK consists of multiple parties, in which there's; the Workers Party of Korea, the Korean Social Democratic Party, and the Chondoist Chongu Party).

The fact that there is only one candidate on the ballot is because there has already been a consensus reached on who should be up for nomination for that position, by the people in their mass meetings.

As for the idea that they're carried out in view of the public, that's asinine and obviously not true if you view even one election in the DPRK, which in fact allows foreign observers of their election. You vote in a separate room from anyone else and are afforded privacy.

Now. We've gotten out of the way on how the democracy works. It's definitely democratic.

But Kim is still in it no??? So it's a monarchy?!

No, not really. We need to go a bit back to explain why such positions exist and why the Kim family are there.

When Kim Il-Sung helped to create the DPRK he as President: this meant he was in charge of the military, and was head of state. He also was head of government for some time, and was General Secretary of the Central Committee, the highest body of the Worker's Party of Korea

When he died, the position of President was abolished, as there was no longer a need for that position. So the position's responsibilities were split up into the head of state, which was the new position of Pres. of the Presidium and the Chairman of the National Defense Committee

As Kim Il-Sung had already divested himself from being head of government, this position was left separate, as the Premier of the Cabinet.

Now, with separate positions, Kim Jong-Il can't have inherited all of them; in fact the only position he "inherited"—

—was Chairman of the NDC, appointed by the Central Committee.

He was then elected General Secretary, but not of the Central Committee, of the party instead. Wheras Kim Il-Sung was in charge of the CC, Kim Jong-Il was not.

So he had less power in this position than his father did, and his father had multiple positions.

When Kim Jong-Il died the General Secretary of the WPK was retired as a position. His son then was elected to be First Secretary, a new position in which he shares more power than—

—His father did.

Kim Jong-un then became First Chairman of the NDC, as Chairman was abolished. Here again, he shares more power with people as compared to his father.

In 2014, the NDC was abolished.

It's replacement, the State Affairs Commission, is made up of the new head of military, Vice Marshall Hwang Pyong-so (Kim Jong-Un is marshall but has not been running the military in any capacity), the Premeir of the DPRK, and commission members.

Whereas the NDC answered to Kim Jong-Il, and later cooperated wtih Kim Jong-Un, the SAC is not beholden to Kim Jong-Un's orders. It is a committee where every vote counts.

In each successive step, power is diffused, with other members of the party having more of a say in how—

—The DPRK is run. Right now the main responsibility Kim Jong-Un has is helping to run the country; keep in fact i said help, and not run

This is completely antithetical to how monarchies work.

(Here's a picture, that tho a bit outdated, highlights the basis of it in comparison)

The reason Kim Jong-Un gets these prestigious positions that lack power is because of the respect the DPRK has for the Kim family and its contributions to liberating Korea.

So they're basically “honorable titles” as a form of respect.

Kim Jong-Un may be the last of the Kim family to hold such positions, and if this does happen, there are already mechanisms in place to replace him. He doesn't have the power to roll back any of these reforms or give himself more power.

In Conclusion, The answer is No.

The DPRK is not a monarchy and seeing how their democracy and country is ran proves this sentiment.

Q{End of thread}

Apologies for any typos (like the one above this) or mistakes.

Feel free to correct or add to this thread. This is a educational thread meant to show more or less how it works.

I also suggest reading the history of DPRK overall if you wanna know more about it historically!