The first vice-president is Choe Ryong-hae, who is also the Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly Standing Committee.

The predecessor body, National Defence Commission, was created in 1972 as sub-committee for defence and security affairs of the Supreme People's Committee, the later was headed by the President of the DPRK Kim Il Sung and exercised similar powers within the constitutional framework of the 1972 Constitution of North Korea.

The National Defence Commission was separated from the Supreme People's Committee in 1992 and Kim Jong Il was officially designated as chair of the body.

In 1998, two years after the death of Kim Il Sung, the National Defence Commission was empowered as the supreme defence body, and in line with the Songun ideology, the supreme political authority of state and legal framework for Kim Jong Il's personal dictatorship.

After the 7th Congress of the Workers Party of Korea, the constitution was amended in June 2016 that reformed the National Defence Commission into the contemporary State Affairs Commission, with the amended text stipulating the body's control over national policy.