Choe Ryong-hae
During Kim Jong-il's "Songun" (military first) era in particular, the GPB remained relatively independent and unchanged for decades. However, after the 2016 7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea under Kim Jong-un, the party had regained enough power to exert influence over the GPB. Consequentially, in 2017 the party Central Committee was ordered to carry out an inspection of the GPB, the first of its kind in 20 years. The inspection was carried out by Choe Ryong-hae.