The Process for Foreign Policy Decision and the Actual Operating State for Various Task Force Teams of North Korea in Kim Jong Un Era

Kim Dong Su (Ph.D)

(Former North Korean Diplomat & Senior Adviser of the Institute for National Security Strategy) 

* This research report was written recently by the cooperation with Mr. Thae Yong Ho, a member of the National Assembly. 

1. The Process for Foreign Policy Decision 

○ At the end(beginning of the December)of the each year, the Ministry of Foreign Affair formulates the document, "the Goals of the Foreign Activities of the New Year" or "the Plan of Diplomatic Offensive of the New Year"(about 20○ pages in A4 papers), and reports it to Kim Jong Un for his official approval.

○ The Process of formulation of the "Report Document to Kim Jong Il" is as followings;

- According to the successes and lessons of the last years' foreign activities, all responsible departments of the Foreign Ministry draw up policy proposals, countermeasures and suggestions which are directly related with the new year's foreign activities.

- According to the self-ideas and instructions of the superiors, all  responsible officers draw up draft policy documents and they must be approved by their section-chief, vice-director and director after they examine them.

- All draft "Report Documents to Kim Jong Un" of each department  are submitted to the responsible Vice-ministers for their approvals. 

- All the approved documents by the Vice-ministers are presented to the Councilors' Section through the Administration and Organizational Department.

- Some important documents including statements and announcements  of the Government or the Foreign Ministry are usually formulated  by the Councilors' Section and submitted to the responsible Vice-ministers.

- The "Report Documents to Kim Jong Un", which has been signed by the responsible Vice-ministers of the Foreign Ministry, must be consulted by the other related Ministries and Committees, such as the Ministry of People's Army, the Ministry of State Defence and Security, the Council of the Government of Administration, etc.

- After the "Report Documents to Kim Jong Un" are consulted by the other related Ministries and Committees, they are again examined and completed in the Vice-ministers' consultation meetings and then they are finally submitted to Kim Jong Un's Office by the signatures of the First Vice-minister and Minister.

- However, the "Report Documents to Kim Jong Un", which are not  fully agreed by the related Ministries and Committees, can not be submitted to Kim Jong Un's Office from the beginnings. 

- Therefore, in North Korea, there might be the "hard and soft forces" in the consultation period, but there can not be the "Right and Left forces" in the period of deciding policies.

○ The contents of the "Report Document to Kim Jong Un" relating to the foreign activities in the whole year is as follows;

- All the foreign activities, countermeasures and recommendations, such as, nuclear, missiles, chemical-weapons, U.S., Japan and North Korean bilateral talks, 6 parties's talks, human rights, works with super powers, unification matters and activities against South Korea, and the matters of the development for relationship with all foreign countries, are stressed broadly in the above "Report Document".

- Foreign policies, countermeasures, and proposals that should be carried out temporarily, such as the development of relations with the countries concerned, are basically emphasized on a large scale.

- When Kim Jong Un signs this "Report Document", all the tasks mentioned in the "Report Document" are officially formulated as the foreign policies and they become the laws which must be carried out in the whole year.

2. The System and Method Reporting to Kim Jong Un

○ Unpredicted important cases, urgent matters and materials relating to the international situation, which are appeared in the period of carrying out the "Report Document to Kim Jong Un" relating to the foreign activities in the whole year and which are inevitably needed for the formulations of the foreign policies, are reported to Kim Jong Un occasionally according to the report procedures.    

○ In the Foreign Ministry, there are 4 main routes reporting to Kim Jong Un.

- The first is regular reporting.

    ∙ "Regular Reporting" is the report through the documents and it is done once in a week.

    ∙ For example, it is fixed in a week, like Foreign Ministry is    reporting on Monday, Ministry of People's Army is reporting on Tuesday, State Defence Ministry is reporting on Wednesday, etc.

- The second is irregular reporting.

    ∙ It is the reporting system through the fax.

    ∙ Urgent and important issues and matters, which must be known by Kim Jong Un, are reported anytime through this system.

- Thirdly, Issues raised and to be dealt with urgently are directly reported to Kim Jong Un by the Foreign Minister or the First Vice Minister by phone

- The fourth is the "Secret Whisky Party"

    ∙ It is the weekend party which is opened in Kim Jong Un's personal house and special secret guest-houses every week.

    ∙ Mostly, First Vice-minister and sometimes minister are invited to this party, and, here, although they enjoy dissipate time, but they discuss the most important matters including personage matter. 

○ Collection of information and analysing system for the "Report   Document to Kim Jong Un" in the Foreign Ministry is as followings;

- All regional departments, the department for analyzing situation, the department for receiving foreign delegations and the department for dispatching delegations abroad are mainly responsible for this work.

- Each regional department is collecting and analysing the international situation, basing on the secret telegrams of the embassies and the major newspapers, radios, magazines and TV sources.

- The department for analyzing situation collects the informations through the above-mentioned sources and submits "No 1. Information Bullets" to Kim Jong Un everyday.

- The department for receiving foreign delegations collects all  informations among the foreign delegations which are visiting North Korea.

- The department for dispatching delegations abroad gives special tasks to all delegations before they leave Pyongyang and after they come back it collects all necessary informations for reporting to Kim Jong Un.

- Besides, the department for protocol collects informations among all foreign embassies in North Korea and reports it to Kim Jong Un everyday.

○ The order of priority of information collection for the "Report Document to Kim Jong Un" is as followings;

- Attitudes and feelings about Kim Jong Un of all government leaders, important politicians and policy-makers and purchasing all materials and sources for long life and good health for Kim Jong Un,

- Foreign countries' tendency and documents materials against North Korea, the attitudes of big powers about the unification of Korean peninsular, modern military technical sources,

- The economic assistances including food assistance and  medium- long term loans, and the work of earning foreign currencies, etc.

3. The Process of Signature and Implementation of the "Report Document to Kim Jong Un"

○ All "Report Documents to Kim Jong Un" from various Ministries and Committees are totally arranged in the Kim Jong Il's personal cabinet and then, they are submitted to Kim Jong Un.

○ There are two styles of signatures after Kim Jong Un examines the "Report Document".

- After Kim Jong Un reads the "Report Document", he signs his names and date on the cover of the document and, sometimes, he writes personally his own opinions in the document. They call this the "Personal Instruction of Kim Jong Un".

    ∙ This document is regarded as exactly as Kim Jong Un's words in the meetings and the telephone instructions to the cadres. 

    ∙ Namely, all the contents of the documents are treated as the will of Kim Jong Un and it means that Kim Jong Un is responsible for the implementation of the tasks of these documents.  

- Sometimes, Kim Jong Un writes only the date on the cover of the document. Then, they call it the "Kim Jong Un's Personal Document".

    ∙ This means that although the contents of the "Report Document" are not the will of Kim Jong Un, but he agrees with the ideas of Foreign Ministry.

    ∙ This document is regarded more lightly than the document of "Personal Instruction of Kim Jong Un", but, again, they must be implemented by all costs.

    ∙ Rarely, Kim Jong Un does not sign his name or even date on the cover of the document. This means that Kim Jong Un does not agree or against with the contents of the document.  In this case, the responsible writer and Vice-minister can not avoid serious punishments.

○ Sometimes, in special situations and atmospheres, Kim Jong Un gives personal instructions to the Foreign Ministry, which are related with the foreign activities.  

- First of all, if you receive a report on the "proposal" related to major external activities and do not like the contents of the proposal,

- It is a case where Kim Jong Un writes down that some parts of the proposal are wrong or criticizes the foreign minister or the first minister directly over the phone

○ Special organizations, like the Ministry of People's Army and the Ministry of State Defence, report to Kim Jong Un about the mistakes of the Foreign ministry's foreign activities related with their fields. And they ask Kim Jong Un to instruct to the Ministry of Foreign  Affairs to help them according to their wills and directions.

- In these cases, although the Foreign Ministry already received the Kim Jong Un's signature for "the Plan of Diplomatic Offensive of the New Year", it must formulates a new "Report Document to Kim Jong Un" in conformity with Kim Jong Il's new instructions. 

- These cases are openly appeared in the "Secret Whisky Party" participated by Kim Jong Il.

○ Once Kim Jong Un signs the "Report Document", it is treated as the "order" or "policy" and returned to the original Ministries.

- In the case of Foreign Ministry, the returned "Report Document to Kim Jong Un" is registered by the Department for Kim Jong Un's Instruction.

- And then, according to the contents of the documents, Minister or First Vice-minister notifies it to all diplomats or some diplomats of responsible departments. 

- The Department for Kim Jong Un's instructions formulates the “Plan for the implementation of the instructions of Kim Jong Un" and distribute them to the related ministries and committees with the copy of Kim Jong Un's instructions.

- The responsible departments have the special book to check the  implementation of Kim Jong Un's instructions and in this book, they have the plan to carry out the instructions by all means, according to the items of the responsible person, date and methods for the implementation of the instruction.

- If the date of implementation of the instructions is not kept and if they give up or carry out the implementation in a wrong way, they are severely criticized and punished.

4. The Process of the Consultation for the Foreign Policies 

○ When the Foreign Ministry submit the "Report Document to Kim Jong Un" related with the foreign policies and activities, it must has the consultations with the related ministries and committees, if these organizations' foreign policies and activities are included in the "Report Document".

- Although the main organizations, such as Supreme People's Assembly, Party, Military and the Administrative Cabinet, are included in the list of consultations,

- Among them, the organizations which are importantly consulted are the Ministry of People's Army, the Defence Department for the State Security, Ministry for the Unification Front and the International Department of Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.

- Therefore, the Foreign Ministry is operating the "Standing   Committees(Task Force Teams)" in the Ministry throughout the  whole year. Among them, the important teams are the "Standing Committee for Nuclear", "Standing Committees for U.S., Japan and 6 Parties' Talks", "Standing Committee for Missiles and Chemical Weapons", "Standing Committee for Human Rights", "Standing Committee for North and South Talks", etc.

○ In the emergency situation, they are operating the "Standing   Committees" in the special places, like the secret "Guest Houses" of each organizations and there, they are formulating the "Report Document to Kim Jong Un" jointly with the related organizations. 

- In 1980s, Kim Jong Il has already established the reporting system which all ministries and committees must have consultations with the Foreign Ministry, if the foreign policies and activities are included in their "Report Document to Kim Jong Il".

- At the same time, Kim Jong Il has instructed to the Foreign Ministry to report him immediately about the mistakes and short-comings of all high-class cadres of Party, Government and Military in the foreign activities, without considering of the position and special organizations.