1.1 NORTH KOREA Consolidation of the Party-Centered Monolithic Ruling System The Kim Jong-un regime will be entering into its fifth year in 2016 and is expected to seek further consolidation of the Kim’s sole leadership under a party-state system by taking the opportunity of convening the 7th Congress of the Korean Workers’ Party in May or October, the first party congress in 36 years, to restore the party’s formal role as the highest policy decision-making body. The congress is also likely to serve as a momentum for Kim Jong-un to declare internally and externally his own policy direction and strategies to wean himself from the influences of his predecessors and to carry out a generational shift in the power elite.