North Korea officially started a hereditary power succession on Sept. 28 when its leader Kim Jong-il named his youngest son a military general and its ruling party gave him key political posts during the 3rd WPK's Representatives Convention, the biggest party convention in decades. North Korea appointed its leader's youngest son, Kim Jong-un, as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea. As a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Kim Jong-un will strengthen his grip on the military that operates 1.2 million troops and forms the basis of the Kim dynasty's power. Kim Jong-il has apparently accelerated his hereditary succession plan since he suffered a stroke in 2008.
This study in the perspective of historical institutionalism provides the hypothesis that establishes external circumstances, governing ideology, leadership, and economic development strategy as independent variables and analyzes characteristics in the science and technology policy under Kim Jong Il’s era as dependent variables. North Korea's economic dependence on its strongest ally China is growing as its economy slips further into deeper isolation from the international community for its nuclear ambition.
In result, focusing on the introduction of advanced science, the development of high technology and revitalizing external science and technology collaboration, Kim Jong-il’s regime strived science and technology development and economic reconstruction at the national level. However, external circumstances, governing ideology, systemic limitation on economic development strategy, and path dependence, which is comparably not different from Kim Il-song’s era, made the science and technology policy in Kim Jung-il’s era and the Kim Jong-un's hereditary power succession period remain in the range of Juche science in the past.