10 Facts About Pak Pong-ju

Pak Pong-ju is a North Korean politician who served as the Premier of North Korea from 2003 to 2007 and again from 2013 to 2019.

Pak Pong-ju was elected a member of the Presidium of the Workers' Party of Korea in 2016.

Pak Pong-ju became an alternative member of the ruling Korean Workers' Party Central Committee in October 1980, and chief of the Namhung Youth Chemical Combine Committee in July 1983.

In 2005, in a plenary session of the Supreme People's Assembly Pak Pong-ju spoke regarding the reintroduction of the public distribution system.

Pak Pong-ju proposed an administrative solution to food distribution and labeled it the party's position: "By all means, we must reach this year's grain production targets by thoroughly implementing the party's policy of agricultural revolution by fully concentrating and mobilizing the entire country's efforts into the agricultural front".

Pak Pong-ju had not been seen in public since May 2006.

Pak Pong-ju serves as part of a committee heading the executive branch of the North Korean government, along with Kim Jong Un and SPA Presidium chairman Kim Yong-nam.

Pak Pong-ju was reputedly close to Jang Sung-taek and part of the current shifting of the government's attention to the consumer economy.

On 11 April 2019, Pak Pong-ju was replaced by Kim Jae-ryong during the first session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly and given vice-chairmanship of the Workers' Party of Korea.

Pak Pong-ju has been seen in the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, visiting the building on the 26th anniversary of the death of Kim Il Sung.