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North Korea ‘military reshuffle’ raises eyebrows in Seoul
SEOUL, June 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – South Korea is monitoring developments in
the North’s armed forces, it said Monday after reports Pyongyang replaced
three of its top military officials ahead of a summit with the United States.
President Donald Trump is due to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
on June 12 in Singapore, with Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal high on the agenda.
Reports said the reshuffle could be aimed at eliminating resistance to the
peace overtures.
Pyongyang’s armed forces, known as the Korean People’s Army, are immensely
influential in the North and a centre of power in their own right, symbolised
by the way Kim is habitually flanked by generals on one side and civilians on
the other when attending major ceremonial events.
Late last month the North’s state media revealed that Kim Su Gil had been
appointed director of the military’s powerful General Political Bureau (GPB),
replacing Kim Jong Gak.
According to Yonhap news agency, which cited intelligence sources, the
chief of the general staff Ri Myong Su has also been replaced by his deputy,
Ri Yong Gil.
Defence minister Pak Yong Sik has been succeeded by No Kwang Chol,
previously first vice minister, it added.
The wholesale reshuffle would be unusual if confirmed, Seoul’s unification
ministry said.
“We will monitor related developments,” ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun
told reporters.
According to researchers at NK Leadership Watch, the change at the top of
the GPB “represents a continuation of tightening Party control over the KPA”.
The political bureau could be in a position to resist policy decisions by
the leadership or try to profit from future South Korean economic aid, it
said.
MORE/MR/ 1240 hrs
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“Both of these things lend themselves to creating alternate power
centres,” it noted.
But new GPB director Kim Su Gil was a “highly trusted” lieutenant of
leader Kim Jong Un, it added, who appointed him to the Pyongyang party
committee — once a power base for his uncle Jang Song Thaek — after having
the older man executed for treason in 2013.
– Hardliners vs moderates? –
Reports said the wider changes could be aimed at preventing objections in
the North’s senior military ranks to any sudden changes in the country’s
nuclear policy. The country remains technically at war after hostilities in
the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty,
and Kim’s father and predecessor Kim Jong Il expounded a “Songun” or
“military-first” policy that is a foundational plank of the North’s ideology.
Pyongyang has long argued that it needs nuclear weapons to protect itself
against a possible invasion by the US.
Yonhap cited the intelligence source as saying No Kwang Chol, the new
defence minister, was known as a “moderate”.
“The North appears to have brought in new figures… as the previous
officials lacked flexibility in thinking,” the source said.
But analysts said the personnel change was more likely a response to an
internal matter.
“It’s meaningless to divide North Korean officials into hardliners and
moderates,” said Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern
Studies at Kyungnam University.
The personnel change was probably intended to implement the new economy-
centred policies, he said, and officials with a better understanding in the
area had been appointed.
No had formerly overseen the military’s financial issues as the chair of
the Second Economy Commission, Kim said.
“It looks like they needed someone who can have a firm grip on the
military and dynamically push ahead with the new policies amid changes in US-
North Korea relations,” he added.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1240 hrs