North Korea has a distinctive group of individuals who belong to powerful families of former high-ranking party officials. This study refers to these individuals as the “patrimonial elite,” a group whose recruitment and promotion within the party and the government have been greatly influenced by their personal ties to the Kim Il-sung family. This paper examines the North Korean patrimonial elite by focusing on the political context in which they have achieved their status as well as on their development and characteristics. The paper considers the emergence of the patrimonial elite as an outcome of North Korea’s policies prioritizing allegiance to the ruler. The rise of the elite has been driven by the two main political factors: Kim Il-sung’s political need for a new group of loyal elites during his power struggles against political adversaries and North Korea’s pattern of hereditary succession.
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