During the succession from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un, North Korea witnessed a revival of party institutions. However, the most distinctive feature of the transition was a succession of purges that replaced powerful figures from the Kim Jong Il era with new loyalists. The system remains personalist, but with strong reliance on the military and security apparatus.
International Environment and Domestic Political Change in North Korea from 1961 to 1967: How Threat Perception Funneled down into the Monolithic Ideological System