Leader: Kim- Jong-un

Dictatorship since 1948

North Korea has been ruled by one of the world’s longest-running dynastic dictatorships. Three generations of the Kim family have ruled with absolute authority, using heavy repression and a system of patronage that ensures support from elites and the military.

2. Political corruption is taken out of the shadows.

3. It can provide effective responses during emergency situations.

4. Dictatorships can take the lead on innovation.

5. Many dictators come to power through experience.

2. Kim Il-sung was the founding father of North Korea, where he ruled from 1948 until his death in 1994.

3. He was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong-il, who served for seventeen years until a fatal heart attack in late 2011.

4. Leadership then passed to Kim Jong-il’s twenty-eight-year-old son, Kim Jong-un, in 2012. He installed his own top personnel, reinvigorated the Worker’s Party of Korea (WPK) as the core political organ, and reclaimed power from elite factions that had been delegated authority in Kim Jong-il’s later years.