The Kumsusan Palace of the Sun had served as the mausoleum and central monument to the immortality of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang. Following the death of Kim Il Sung on 8 July 1994, the state took unprecedented steps to institutionalise his legacy. On 5 September 1998, a constitutional revision officially declared him the "Eternal President". The Palace had transformed into a giant mausoleum, serving as a monument to his immortality and a sacred national Korean symbol. When Kim Jong Il died on 17 December 2011, this system of eternal governance was expanded. On 12 January 2012, Kim Jong Il was declared the "Eternal Leader of the Party and the Revolution". Under Kim Jong Un, the preamble of the constitution was revised to enshrine both figures as the eternal leaders of Juche Korea, officially designating the document as the Kim Il Sung–Kim Jong Il Constitution. The state replaced traditional Marxist–Leninist concepts, moving away from standard Japanese translations of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. In 2013, the Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System were revised to include Kim Jong Il alongside his father Kim Il Sung. The ideological and political landscape of North Korea under Kim Jong Un is defined by the absolute deification of its past leaders and the total consolidation of power with its ideological framework systematically purged traditional Soviet and Chinese communist references to establish total philosophical independence. In major reports, Kim Jong Un has been known to deliver lengthy addresses to address economic shortcomings and hold leading officials publicly accountable for failing to meet economic plan goals. North Korea maintains the only legally binding mutual aid and cooperation treaty of its kind with China, which often described as Pyongyang's closest ally, the two nations share a formalized defense agreement. Beijing remained an economic lifeline with Pyongyang. The capital city of Pyongyang serves as the absolute epicenter of the regime's power, functioning as the political, industrial, and transport heart of the nation under Kim Jong Un's reign. On 29 June 2016, Juche (self-reliance) and Songun (military-first) had merged under the banner declared as the "Eternal Leaders of Juche Korea" which mirrors the official state doctrine of Kimilsungism-Kimjongonism, had cement the absolute authority of the ruling Kim dynasty in Pyongyang as the political and ideological heartbeat of North Korea. Throughout Kim Jong Un's rule, the regime has heavily prioritized physical transformation to reinforce its ideology with mass residential and urban modernization projects have been continually constructed across the country, with flagship developments reshaping the skyline of Pyongyang to project national strength and ideological permanence where the government relies on holding the highest offices across all major state and party structures, ensuring that no institutional checks can challenge his authority. Kim Jong Un has been routinely "elected" and "reelected" to the Supreme People's Assembly to represent constituencies that carry massive symbolic weight, such as the capital city of Pyongyang and the politically sacred Mount Paektu, the mythical birthplace of the Korean nation and the claimed cradle of the Kim family bureaucracy when he assumed power back in late 2011 with supreme leadership and consolidating power across every facet of the nation's political, military, and civic life.
