A Study on the Durability of the Kim Jong Un Regime: Focusing on Changes in Political Leadership Following the 8th Party Congress

Kim Jong-un ascended to power after the death of Kim Jong-il on December 17, 2011. Since then, he has faced numerous challenges and threats. Despite this difficult environment, the Kim Jong-un regime has not only endured but has also become more resilient, maintaining a high level of stability. This study aims to analyze the durability of the Kim Jong-un regime. To achieve this, Kim Jong-un's political leadership over the power elite is established as a new analytical framework. In this study, the dependent variable is the change in the durability of the Kim Jong-un regime, while the independent variable is Kim Jong-un's political leadership in relation to the power elite. The parameters are defined by evaluating Kim Jong-un's political leadership, with crisis management ability and regime stability serving as the evaluation criteria. Consequently, a new analytical framework is employed to examine the impact of Kim Jong-un's political leadership tendencies and the evolving attitudes of the power elite on North Korean society as a whole, particularly focusing on changes in the durability of the Kim Jong-un regime following the Eighth Party Congress. As a result of the study, the durability of the Kim Jong-un regime has gradually strengthened over time compared to its initial period in power. Notably, following the 8th Party Congress, the regime has maintained a stable and increasingly robust state of resilience.