In the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the cabinet is the administrative and executive body. The North Korean government consists of three branches: administrative, legislative, and judicial. However, they are not independent of each other.

The politics of North Korea takes place within the framework of the official state philosophy, Juche, a concept created by Hwang Chang-yop and later attributed to Kim Il-sung. In practice, North Korea functions as a one-party state under a totalitarian family dictatorship, described even as an absolute monarchy with Kim Il-sung and his heirs as its rulers.