North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
Kim Jong-un
Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's sec ...
. He was a vice director of the WPK
Organization and Guidance Department
The Organization and Guidance Department (OGD) is a department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the ruling party of North Korea. Its central responsibility is to implement the directives and teachings of the ''Suryeon ...
Politburo
A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states.
Names
The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...
, and a secretary of the Secretariat of the WPK since it was elected at the 8th WPK Central Committee in January 2021. Jo appears to serve as the First Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea making him formally the principal day-to-day leader of the party second only to Kim Jong-un.
Jo is a confidant of the country's leader,
Kim Jong-un
Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's sec ...
, and accompanies him often on
guidance tours
"On-the-spot guidance" (also "guidance tours" or "field guidance") is a term used in the North Korean mass media to describe appearances by the supreme leader of North Korea, often at sites related to the military or to industry, at which the lea ...
, mostly in relation to economy. In 2016 he was the most frequent member of Kim's entourage.
According to ''
NK News
NK News is an American subscription-based news website that provides stories and analysis about North Korea. Established in 2011, it is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea with reporters in Washington, D.C. and London. Reporting is based on infor ...
'', Jo was "once described as a 'rising star' of DPRK politics ndremains one of the country's most important officials." Jo is often featured in
North Korean media
The mass media in North Korea is amongst the most strictly controlled in the world. The constitution nominally provides for freedom of speech and the press. However, the government routinely disregards these rights, and seeks to mold information ...
; in 2018 his name was mentioned more often than that of any other official except Kim Jong-un.
In March 2021 in Pyongyang, Jo "sharply censured the shortcomings" of WPK city and county level cadre, calling out their "deviations of failing to properly apply our Party's people-first politics."
Sanctions and travel ban
In January 2017, the
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...
sanctioned Jo for his involvement in the censorship activities of the OGD. In June 2017, Jo was singled out in Annex 1 of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2356, which placed an international travel ban and asset freeze on him.
See also
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Politics of North Korea
The politics of North Korea (officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or DPRK) takes place within the framework of the official state philosophy, Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism. ''Juche'', which is a part of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism, i ...