Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea

History

From 1946 to 1966, the party′s leader was called Chairman of the Central Committee. Since 1966, the year the 2nd Party Conference reformed the structure of the Party, the Central Committee, usually at its first plenum after a party congress, elected a leader called the General Secretary of the Central Committee; the post was held by Kim Il-sung from 1966 to 1994, the year of his demise. Although the Party Rules stipulated that the party leader was to be elected by the Central Committee, Kim Jong-il was proclaimed General Secretary of the Party (not "of the Central Committee") by a joint notice of the Central Committee and Central Military Commission on 8 October 1997 following resolutions proposing Kim Jong-il's election adopted by the provincial Party organizations; he was then re-elected directly by the 3rd Party Conference in September 2010.

The 2012 Party Conference "decided to hold Kim Jong Il … in high esteem as Eternal General Secretary of the WPK …" and therefore elected the new leader Kim Jong-un First Secretary of the WPK (again not "of the Central Committee").

At the 7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea, the post Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea was created as the highest post of the Workers' Party of Korea, which replaced the title of First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. Kim Jong Un, who was First Secretary, was elected to fill the new position.