The Supreme Court has separate chambers for criminal, civil, and special matters.

Instead, these powers are exercised by the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, which is dominated by Korean Workers' Party and has never ruled a law unconstitutional.

[3] Its task is to supervise all lower courts in the country,[2] including their trials and proceedings,[1] as well as the training of judges.

[15] The current president Kang Yun-sok replaced Pak Myong-chol,[9] who had held the post since 2014.

[26] For offenders of the Criminal Law of North Korea, the Supreme Court has recommended capital punishment.

[27] Summary and arbitrary executions outside the procedure involving the Supreme Court take place in the country, too,[28] sometimes with torture leading up to a confession.

This is true despite the fact that crimes against the nation and people, which foreigners are usually accused of, should, according to the Criminal Procedure Law of North Korea, be tried at local-level courts first.

Trials of foreigners have involved Americans detained in North Korea such as Aijalon Gomes, Euna Lee, Laura Ling, Matthew Todd Miller, Otto Warmbier and Kenneth Bae.

[17] If judges of the Supreme Court hand out "unjust sentences", they can be held liable for it.