Supreme Council of Menghe
| 大孟社會主義共和國最高議會 대멩 사회주의 궁화국 최고의회 Dae Meng Sahoejuŭi Gonghwaguk Choego Ŭihoe | |
 State Emblem of Menghe | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 25 May 1988 |
| Preceding agencies |
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| Type | Executive branch of the central government Highest organ of State administration |
| Jurisdiction | Socialist Republic of Menghe |
| Headquarters | Donggwangsan, Donggyŏng |
| Agency executives |
|
The Supreme Council (Menghean: 최고의회 / 最高議會, Choego Ŭihoe) is the highest executive body in the Socialist Republic of Menghe, equivalent in rank to a cabinet but with additional duties and roles. It has a total of 25 permanent members, consisting of one Chairman, four Vice Chairman, and the heads of Menghe's twenty government ministries. The Chairman of the Supreme Council is the highest executive authority in the country, and functions as both head of state and head of government.
In his tenure as Chairman, Choe Sŭng-min has turned the Supreme Council into the main locus of decision-making and implementation, leaving the Central Standing Committee of the Socialist Party in a largely secondary role. This differentiates Menghe from many other one-party Socialist states, where the politburo is the main de facto policymaking body.
History
Between 1964 and 1987, the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe governed primarily through the Politburo of the People's Communist Party. Because competing political organizations were outlawed, the Politburo had full control over central policy, and the Council of Ministers - equivalent in structure to today's Supreme Council - held little actual power.
In the wake of the Decembrist Revolution, Major-General Choe Sŭng-min and the other coup conspirators organized an Interim Council for National Restoration, which ruled the country until the new constitution entered into effect on 25 May 1988. Initially, this was chaired by Marshal Baek, the highest-ranking coup participant; but on March 1st, Choe staged a counter-coup and installed himself as the new Chairman. From this point onward, the Interim Council for National Reconstruction became Choe's main nexus of political power, and he effectively formalized its structure into the May 25th constitution.
Since then, the structure of the Supreme Council has undergone some changes, mostly related to the creation, merging, and dissolution of ministry-level bodies. Its basic role, however, has remained the same since 1988.
Organization
In its current form, the Supreme Council of Menghe has 25 permanent members. The first five consist of the Chairman, the First Deputy Chairman, two Deputy Chairmen, and the Chairman's Chief of Staff. The remaining twenty positions are filled by the heads of Menghe's twenty Ministry-level governing bodies. Additional executive agencies and special committees may report directly to the Supreme Council, and their leaders may be summoned to sit in on Supreme Council meetings with advisory rights, but they are not permanent members.
The Chairman of the Supreme Council is elected by the National Assembly to a ten-year term, with no limits on the number of times the term can be renewed. For the three decades that Choe Sŭng-min has held this post, he has always run unopposed, and effectively holds the position for life. By simultaneously holding the posts of General-Secretary of the Party and Supreme Marshal of the Armed Forces, Choe Sŭng-min is able to wield absolute power in Menghe, with supreme control over the Party, State, and Military.
The First Deputy Chairman is the second highest-ranked official on the Supreme Council, and has the authority to lead meetings if the Chairman is absent, and to take his place if he dies unexpectedly. It is widely believed that the current First Deputy Chairman, Kim Pyŏng-so, is being groomed to take over the role of supreme leader after Choe Sŭng-min dies or leaves office.
The Chairman of the Supreme Council has the authority to appoint and dismiss Ministers and Deputy Chairmen as he wishes. Appointments of ministers must also be approved by the National Assembly, but like the election of the Chairman this is purely a formality. There is no recorded case of an appointment being stalled or rejected, though on at least one occasion Choe Sŭng-min is believed to have withdrawn a prospective appointment from consideration after receiving negative feedback from the National Assembly.
The Supreme Council meets in the Donggwangsan palace, which also serves as the office and personal residence of Choe Sŭng-min. Its charter states that it holds regular meetings once a month, but the Chairman can also call additional meetings, and appears to do so on a regular basis. There are also reports that irregular meetings may be called without all Ministers present, or without all Ministers invited, though some sources postulate that these are in fact enlarged meetings of the Central Steering Committee.
Central Steering Committee
The Central Steering Committee is a sub-body of the Supreme Council, and serves as the Chairman's innermost circle for decision-making. It is widely considered to be the single most important governing body in Menghe, with similar structure and equivalent power to a politburo standing committee in other single-party Socialist countries.
There is no official law on the composition of the Central Steering Committee, but its size has generally fluctuated between seven and nine ministers, always including the Chairman and the First Deputy Chairman. Typically, it has also included representatives of the military, the economy, the interior, and internal security, though the names of these ministries have varied, as have the duties of their leaders. Every five years, the Chairman decides which officials will serve on the Central Steering Committee, accounting not only for their posts in the Supreme Council but also for other posts they may hold concurrently elsewhere in the government.
Compared to the full Supreme Council, even less is known about the meeting structure of the Central Steering Committee, except for its membership and location in a separate room of the Donggwangsan palace. Outside estimates of its meeting frequency range from weekly to daily, and often overlap with informal meetings between Choe Sŭng-min and his advisors. Anonymous insider interviewees have indicated that it is common for the Central Steering Committee to convene with additional officials present, or with a reduced size, depending on the situation.
Role
Article 91 of the May 25 Constitution proclaims that the Supreme Council is the highest executive body in the Socialist Republic of Menghe, and is responsible for guiding the country on the most critical issues. The official website of the Menghean government lists its duties as including the following:
- Resolutely steering the general course of national policy;
- Guiding the work of government ministries and other government bodies subordinate to the Supreme Council;
- Advising and supporting the Chairman of the Supreme Council in his duties as Head of Government, and critiquing his decisions where necessary;
- Developing and ratifying treaties and other high-level agreements with foreign countries, and setting the tone of foreign policy;
- Guiding the course of national economic development, through the setting of economic policies, the promulgation of five-year plans, the coordination of major infrastructure projects, and direct consultation with the managers of state-run enterprises and Jachi-hoesa;
- Compiling budgets, balancing accounts, and making decisions on other fiscal, financial, and monetary issues concerning the State;
- Determining the objectives and acceptable means of Menghean foreign policy in the military realm;
- Issuing declarations of war, and approving ceasefire agreements;
- Declaring and lifting martial law, over part or all of the country;
- Appointing the heads of ministries, the governors of provinces, and the administrators of directly-controlled cities;
- Approving the appointments of the Prosecutor-General, the Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Navy, the heads of national universities, ambassadors to foreign countries, managers in state-run enterprises, and other public officials for whom Ministry law requires a Supreme Council consultation;
- Reading, assessing, and implementing citizen petitions submitted to the Supreme Council and the Executive;
- Developing, drafting, and revising amendments to the Menghean Constitution, with the assistance of the National Assembly;
- Establishing, disbanding, and modifying government agencies, and clarifying the boundaries of authority between them;
- Reviewing decisions, appointments, and policies made by subordinate Ministries and political parties, and abolishing or rescinding those that contradict the aims of national policy, including through the dismissal of relevant officials;
- Handling other matters presented by the Chairman or the First Deputy Chairman; and
- Evaluating and analyzing past and present state policy in each of these realms, with the goal of learning from mistakes and improving future decisions.
In contrast with other Socialist governments, such as that of the Federation of Socialist Republics, the Supreme Council of Menghe is the country's most important decision-making body, with the Standing Committee of the Menghean Socialist Party playing a secondary role. This arrangement reflects the origins of the current regime, in which Choe came to power at the head of the Interim Council for National Reconstruction and established the Socialist Party as a supporting body. The Chairman has since defended this arrangement on the basis that the "separation of affairs of state from affairs of ideology" allows for more pragmatic policymaking and grants greater clarity and legitimacy to the ruling inner circle.
Current membership
Below is a list of the members of the Supreme Council's 2013-2018 session. Members of the Menghean Socialist Party are marked in azure, and members of the Menghean Social-Democratic Party are marked in light blue. The column on the right side indicates whether the holder of this position is currently a permanent member of the Central Steering Committee.
| Position on the Supreme Council | Name | Other upper-level positions held simultaneously | Steering Committee? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chairman | Choe Sŭng-min | General-Secretary of the Socialist Party, Supreme Marshal of the Armed Forces | Yes |
| First Deputy Chairman | Kim Pyŏng-so | First Deputy Secretary of the Party, Army Vice-Marshal for General Planning, Director-General of Discipline Inspection | Yes |
| Deputy Chairman | Ri Hyo-jin | Speaker of the National Assembly, Politburo member | Yes |
| Deputy Chairman | Choe Tae-sŏk | Politburo member | Yes |
| Chairman's Chief of Staff | Sin Kyŏng-taek | Politburo member | No |
| Minister of Agriculture, Land, and Resources | Ryang Jin-yŏng | No | |
| Minister of Civil Affairs | Jang Sang | Yes | |
| Minister of Culture | Hwang Mi-ran | No | |
| Minister of Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs | Hong Tae-jun | Yes | |
| Minister of Education | Han Sang-u | No | |
| Minister of Environmental Protection | Yu Mi-yŏn | No | |
| Minister of Ethnic Relations | O Myŏng-hun | Politburo member | No |
| Minister of Finance and Taxation | Hŏ Sŏng-nam | No | |
| Minister of Information and Statistics | İbrahimlu Orxun | No | |
| Minister of Internal Security | Gun Se-yŏng | Yes | |
| Minister of International Trade and Investment | Gwŏn Ho-sŏng | No | |
| Minister of Justice | Yi In-hye | No | |
| Minister of Labor and Employment Protection | Sŏ Min-hyŏk | No | |
| Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries | Elçinzadə İlqar | No | |
| Minister of National Defense | Kim Jŏng-min | Yes | |
| Minister of National Economic Development | Mun Jae-sin | Yes | |
| Minister of Public Health | Choe Sŏ-jin | No | |
| Minister of Technological Development | Meng Yong-jun | No | |
| Minister of Transportation and Communications | Yun Hong-gi | No | |
| Minister of State-Owned Enterprises | Gang Byŏng-u | No |
Out of the members of the Supreme Council who entered office in 2013, 23 out of 25 are members of the Menghean Socialist Party, and six serve on the Party's Politburo Standing Committee. Similarly, 23 members are of the Meng ethnic group, with two ethnic Uzeris, though this ratio is only slightly out of proportion with Menghe's overall demographics (89% Meng, 6% Uzeri). Only three Ministers (Hwang Mi-ran, Yu Mi-yŏn, and Yi In-hye) are women, and none of them are part of the Central Steering Committee, a fact which has drawn pointed criticism from Menghean feminists.