North Korea: Late on Wednesday, the special conference of the Workers' Party of Korea voted Kim Jong-un first secretary of the Party. His father Kim Chong-il is the eternal "general secretary "of the Party and his grandfather Kim Il-sung is the eternal president of North Korea.
Comment: The new Kim has all but one of his father's positions. He has not yet been named Chairman of the National Defense Commission, which is the de facto head of government and state. He is a Vice Chairman, one of several, but not the First Vice Chairman. Kim Jong-un's military minders might decide to have Kim Chong-il remain as the eternal chairman and keep his son as a vice chairman.
The only thing that is certain is that the inner military leadership has control of the country in ways not seen under either Kim Il-sung or Kim Chong-il. Stalin might have charged the North Korean Workers' Party with "Bonapartism a communist heresy that brought down Marshal Zhukov after World War II.
Note: In a communist system, the armed forces are always subordinate to the Party. The worst offense a general can make is to challenge the communist party leadership. This is the offense known as Bonapartism - military challenge of the Party leadership.
North Korean understanding of communism is so shallow that, in addition to establishing a family dynasty, the current leader and his father have extolled "sangun," the policy of placing the military first above all other state interests. They have made Bonapartism a North Korean virtue, provided the vice marshals and generals support the Kim family and its extravagances.
In communist theory, the sangun policy is an abomination, also described as counter-revolutionary. The irony is that the late Kim Il-sung needed two decades in the1950's and 1960's of non-stop military purges to force the North Korean armed forces to pledge loyalty and obedience to the Workers' Party. His son undid that achievement within three months of his father's death in 1994, out of fear of assassination by the military. Kim Jung-un loo