The following is a list of national meetings of the Workers' Party of Korea. This article defines national meetings as party congresses ( ko, 조선로동당 당대회) and conferences of party representatives ( ko, 조선로동당 대표자회).
The party Congress is nominally the highest body of the
Workers' Party of Korea
The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is the founding and sole ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. Founded in 1949 from the merger of the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party ...
(WPK) according to its
charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
.
The charter stated specifically that it should convene at least every fifth year; however, the congress has historically never managed to be convened in that time frame.
There was a gap of 36 years between the
6th Congress and the
7th Congress. However, two party conferences were convened in the period 2010–2012.
The 3rd Party Conference in 2010 formally deleted the five-year clause from the party charter,
but it was later restored at the
8th Congress in 2021.
The Congress hears the reports of central authorities, makes amendments to the
party's charter, sets the party's political line, elects the
General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea
The general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (Korean: 조선로동당 총비서) is the head of the Workers' Party of Korea, the ruling party in North Korea, and considered as the supreme leader of North Korea. The general secretary ...
, elects the
Central Committee and elects the
Central Auditing Commission. The 1st Plenary Session of the elected Central Committee then elects the
Politburo, the
Secretariat
Secretariat may refer to:
* Secretariat (administrative office)
* Secretariat (horse)
Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred racehorse who is the ninth winner of the Ame ...
, the
Central Military Commission and other bodies of the Central Committee.
Despite this, as Fyodor Tertitskiy notes, "When it comes to the
supreme leader of North Korea, it is not his position that makes him a leader; it is the person who makes a position one of leadership.
Kim Jong-un may be called supreme commander, first chairman or even God-Emperor — it does not matter; he is in charge by right of bloodline."
For example, Kim Jong-un's election as Chairman of the WPK at the 7th Party Congress did not mean that said Congress was previously empowered to make decisions independent of Kim Jong-un.
Keys
Meetings
Congresses
Conferences
References
Specific
Bibliography
''Articles and journals:''
*
General
Information on congresses & conferences, number of delegates, number of people elected to CCs, party membership, the individual who presented the Political Report and information on when the congress was convened can be found in these sources:
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*
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{{National meetings of the Workers' Party of Korea
Congresses of the Workers' Party of Korea