Professional Affiliation

Senior Research Fellow, The Sejong Institute, South Korea

Expert Bio

Cheong Seong-Chang, Senior Research Fellow at the Sejong Institute, received his doctoral degree in North Korean politics at l'Université de Paris X in 1996. With the Sejong Institute since 2001, Dr. Cheong has been focusing his research on North Korean politics and military, Kim Jong Un's leadership and North Korea’s power elite. Dr. Cheong is a member of the Policy Advisory Committee of the Blue House (Cheongwadae) National Security Office for President Moon Jae-in. He has also served on the policy advisory committees of the Ministry of Unification, the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dr. Cheong is the author of Idéologie et système en Corée du Nord: De Kim Il-Song à Kim Chong-Il (1997) and Contemporary North Korean Politics: History, Ideology and Power System (2011). He has co-authored numerous books and theses on North Korean politics, military, and Korean unification issues.

Wilson Center Project

Who Rules and Runs North Korea? Kim Jong Un’s Leadership Style and Changes in North Korea’s Power Elite

Project Summary

When dealing with Pyongyang, it is crucial to know the characteristics and the roles of the power elites who participate in North Korea’s policy decision-making. This project will analyze the process through which Kim Jong Un seized power and the impacts of his decision-making style on North Korea’s policy and personnel, while shedding light on the reformist, pragmatist, and pro-people aspects of Kim’s summit diplomacy beyond his authoritarian and belligerent sides. It will examine in depth the causes and characteristics of the changes in core elites in the military, the Workers’ Party of Korea (including the Central Committee’s Political Bureau, Executive Policy Bureau, and the Central Military Commission), and the state institutions (especially the former National Defense Commission and the State Affairs Commission), and the impacts of these changes on North Korea’s domestic and foreign policies.

 

Major Publications

Idéologie et système en Corée du Nord: De Kim Il-Song à Kim Chong-Il (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1997)

The Contemporary Politics of North Korea: History, Ideology, and Power Structure (Seoul: Hanul Academy, 2011) (in Korean)

Study on the Status and Role of the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army (Seongnam: The Sejong Institute, 2015) (in Korean)