Organization and Guidance Department of the Workers' Party of Korea

Organization and Guidance Department

Logo of the Workers' Party of Korea
Agency overview
Formed	15 September 1948
Preceding agency	General Affairs Department
Jurisdiction	Party, state and military
Headquarters	Pyongyang, North Korea
Agency executives	Unknown who currently heads the OGD Hwang Pyong-so, First Deputy Cho Yon-jun, First Deputy Kim Kyong-ok, First Deputy Min Byong-chol, First Deputy
Parent agency	Central Committee

The Organization and Guidance Department (OGD) of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) was initially a division within the WPK General Affairs Department, but eventually spun off and was established at the 3rd Plenary Session of the 2nd Central Committee as the Organization Committee.

The OGD's main responsibility is to "completely implement the teaching and decisions of the Suryong [Great Leader]". According to North Korean dissident Jang Jin-sung "The only entity that actually matters when it comes to decision-making or policy-making is the Organization and Guidance Department", adding that "All roads in North Korea lead to the OGD, the OGD is designed to support the authority of one man alone at the top." North Korean specialist Nicolas Levi refers to the OGD as "The heart of the North Korean system".

According to Hwang Jang-yop, a member of the WPK Secretariat turned dissident, the leading figures of North Korea belong to the OGD. It is believed by Nicolas Levi that those who accompany Kim Jong-un on on-site inspections are OGD officials. Some of its powers were given to the WPK Administrative Department (AD), in a bid to weaken the influence of those working in the OGD. However, with the execution of Jang Song-thaek, the AD Head, the AD itself was abolished not long after in February 2014. There are those, most prominently the defector Jang Jin-sung, who currently argue that the leaders of the OGD are the real leaders of North Korea, and that Kim Jong-un is a puppet. He argues that Hwang Pyong-so, the First Deputy Head of the OGD, through his post as Director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army, is the real ruler of the country because (Jang believes) he controls the appointments and dismissals of military officers. He concludes that Kim Jong-un will remain a puppet as long as Kim Jong-il's old proteges still control the OGD. Michael Madden of the North Korea Leadership Watch disagrees, claiming instead that the OGD implements the directives of the Supreme Leader, and is not powerful enough to introduce directives itself.