Organizations Cabinet Ministries The Secretariat of the Workers' Party of Korea, formerly known as the Executive Policy Bureau (2016–21), manages the work of the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea and its Presidium.
The Secretariat, the forerunner of the Executive Policy Bureau, was established at the 2nd Conference of Representatives in October 1966, and was similar to its counterpart in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the Stalin era.
[1] The Secretariat was established during a power struggle as a means of strengthening Kim Il Sung's control over the party's lower-level organizations; for this reason, a large majority of the first Secretariat members were full or candidate members of the WPK Politburo.
[2] The Secretariat's prestige continued to decline during Kim Jong Il's rule, with five of its twelve members dying during the interregnum between the December 1993 21st Plenary Session of the 6th Central Committee and the 3rd Conference of Representatives in 2010.
[8][9] The body was known as the Secretariat from its establishment in October 1966 to its reorganization into the Executive Policy Bureau at the 7th Congress in May 2016.