This paper corresponds to Chapter Three of the first thesis, "The Constitutional Government Framework," of the author's research on the government structure in North Korea. The second thesis will be a study of the supra-consititutional ruling system, that is, the Korean Workers' Party.
1. The position and functions of the cabinet in North Korea
Constitutionally, the Cabinet is responsible only to the Supreme People's Assembly and its Standing Committee, but in practice it is subordinated to the Central Committee of the Korean Workers' Party, and the top ranking men of the Party have been holding premiership. The Fourth Congress of the Korean Workers' Party resolved that the Cabinet should be the executor of the route and policy. Thus, the policy and planning of the cabinet have never met any objections by Supreme People's Assembly.
2. The Composition of the Cabinet Council
The Cabinet council is classified into the ministerial meeting and the standing cabinet meeting which is attended by eight persons, including the Premier and Vice-Premier. The standing cabinet meeting is greater in importance than the ministerial meeting,and the ordinary members of the Cabinet remain only as supervisors of the matters under their respective jurisdictions, and Premier and Vice-Premiers are on the political committee of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers' Party. The Cabinet Commissions take charge of planningand coordination for several ministries.
3. The functions of Local Administration and the Reorganization of Administrative Limits
The local administrative organs in North Korea, placed under the guidance of the Cabinet, are all levels of people's assemblies organized in echelon, and their executive organs are the People's Committees of the special city, provinces, cities, counties and ri. The myon, and administrative district ranked between country and ri, was abolished in 1952 in order to simplify the administrative channel of direction, to improve administrative efficiency and to ruduce the budjet. The reorganization of provinces and the special city, the largest local administrative unit, was carried out in 1954, and at present, North Korea has one special city, nine provinces and one city under the control of the Central Government. The reason why North Korea took the same number of local administrative units as that of South Korea seems to be their strategic aim to cover up their inferiority in population and claim a footing of equality with South Korea when the problem of the unification of Korea is ripened on a full scale.
4. The Transitional Course of the Central Economic Administrative Structure
The frequent reorganization of administrative structure reflects not only the change of political situations and the conditions of economic construction, but also resulted from immaturity in administrative experience. Especially, the transition of industrial and economic structure is complicated, and we can see some indications that it is connected with the failure in carrying out in their economic plan.
5. The Judicial Structure - The Extention of Administration
The Ministry of Justice of North Korea was abolished in 1959, and the matters under the jurisdiction of the Ministry were transferred to the Supreme Court, and Ho, Chongsuk, and outsider of law who was Minister of Justice, was appointed as president of the Court. Thus, the control of courts of justice by the administration became strengthened.
In 1958, Kim, Ilsong issued a statement which is entirely contrary to their constitutional provision for the independence of the judiciary emphasizing that to be faithful to the proletariat, the procuratorial officials must be harsh on anti-revolutionalies. What made him to issue this statement was the purge of anti-party reactionists. The Public Procurator's Office of North Korea seems to have assumed the competency of the Ministry of Censorship when the ministry was abolished in 1959. Thus, the independence of the Judiciary is not quaranteed. In North Korea, and the Judicial structure serves only as an administrative tool under the control of Korean Workers' Party and the government.