The Koreas | Politics | East Asia

A Primer on North Korea’s Upcoming Parliamentary Election

Of course these elections have no real competition. But they are not meaningless.

On March 15, North Korea will hold its first national level elections since 2019. After being delayed for two years, the Kim Jong Un regime delivered a short notice announcement last week that the country would be visiting the ballot boxes to cast their votes for their representatives in the Supreme People’s Assembly.

There is a common misconception that these elections mean nothing – that they are an exercise in “cosplay diplomacy” and nothing more. Certainly, these elections are not important based on competing outcomes; rather, they are a window into the North Korean system of governance, its policy priorities, and how – if at all – it is evolving.

This is particularly important given the changes to North Korea’s election law in October 2023. At the time, the Kim regime flirted with incremental changes to the manner in which it carried out votes at the municipal and provincial levels. Whether any of these changes will extend to the national level remains unclear.

Background on the Supreme People’s Assembly

The Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) is the core institution used to justify the “democratic” part of North Korea’s official name: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The SPA formed in the late 1940s, largely owing to the United Nations demands that free and fair elections take place on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea, desiring to appear the more democratic of the two Koreas, held its first election on August 25, 1948. There have been 14 elections until now, taking place on the following days:

The irregularity of timing is notable, because it indicates that the regime will shift the elections as it deems necessary.

The SPA is composed of elected “deputies” who are meant to serve five-year terms. In the SPA, the deputies are meant to carry out 17 constitutionally mandated tasks, but real policymaking power in the North Korean government rests within the Workers’ Party of Korea institutions. The SPA’s function in this arrangement is not to deliberate policy or legal matters, but to formalize the regime’s decision-making and codify it into what counts for North Korean law. This is why the media and outside observers tend to refer to the SPA as the “rubber-stamp legislature.”

This does not, however, mean that the SPA elections or the SPA itself are irrelevant within the North Korean system of governance. While less important as a policy and legal formation body, it is a mechanism for managing elite power dynamics and implementing the regime’s policy designs.

The Mechanics of North Korean Elections

North Korea likes to portray Election Day as a festive affair. The process of casting ballots is a unique exercise in North Korea. The government carries it out in such a way as to maintain the appearance of a real election while ensuring that preselected candidates achieve near-unanimous victories. At the same time, the mandatory voting requirement and strict registration of participation ensures that these elections double as a de facto census in the country.

There is mixed reporting on how ballots are cast. Some reports suggest that a government official observes individuals as they cast their ballots. A firsthand account from a former diplomat in North Korea stated that individuals were alone in the room with the ballot box. Likely, both are correct, since different constituencies and polling stations may handle the actual mechanics of voting differently.

Traditionally, every constituency only puts one candidate forward, and election officials hand write that person’s name onto all the ballots before voting begins. The voter’s name is recorded in a ledger. Every citizen of voting age is required to vote in the SPA election, and local officials keep track of this via these handwritten ledgers. The voter then enters a room with a ballot box. There is a pencil on the box, which can be used to cast a dissenting vote by drawing a line through the name that is on the ballot.

Members of the Kim family are elected as SPA deputies and participate in casting ballots. Kim Jong Un relinquished his........

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