They replaced older, more conservative officers who have been recently sacked, according to a senior US official and North Korea leadership analysts in Seoul.
As Washington pursues a negotiated end to Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, US officials believe there was some dissent in the military about Kim’s negotiations with South Korea and the United States, a complete reversal of the North’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and historic hostility. It was not clear if the sacked officers were responsible.
Citing an unidentified intelligence official, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said No Kwang-chol, first vice minister in the defence ministry, had replaced Pak Yong-sik as the defence chief, while Ri Yong-gil had returned as the army’s chief of general staff in place of Ri Myong-su. The appointments could not be immediately confirmed.
North Korean media had earlier reported that Army General Kim Su-gil had succeeded Kim Jong-gak as director of the army’s powerful General Political Bureau, one of the most senior positions in the country. The changes are a shock because they take place so close to each other and come just ahead of the scheduled June 12 summit between Trump and Kim in Singapore.
Some analysts said Kim was replacing older officers who were wedded to the country’s nuclear doctrine with loyalists who would follow any changes he may make following the summit.
“There would be a denuclearisation roadmap coming out of the summit with Trump, and it would be burdensome for Kim to have hawks who could be agitated by any desertion of the nuclear programme,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at South Korea’s Sejong Institute.
Trump wants North Korea to “denuclearise” in return for relief from economic sanctions. Pyongyang sees its nuclear weapons as vital to its survival but Kim has said he plans to focus on economic development. The moves are also in line with Kim’s years-long efforts to consolidate power by purging senior officers and promoting trusted younger advisers to the politburo and other core positions. The new officers could also provide some insurance against any attempt to seize power while Kim is away at the summit, experts say.
“All these guys are Kim Jong-un people,” said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at Johns Hopkins University’s 38 North website.
“Kim Jong-un is going to put people in place he can trust, who are loyal to him.” In addition to being hardcore loyalists, Madden said the three officers were experienced in dealing with foreigners, which was seen as a plus point. But it was not immediately clear whether any of them would accompany Kim to Singapore. Kim Su-gil, 68, is a four-star Army general who is one of Kim Jong-un’s most trusted aides, accompanying him on various military inspections and public events.
He was among those involved in the purge and execution of Kim Jong-un’s powerful uncle, Jang Song-thaek, in December 2013. Then he was tapped to lead the party’s Pyongyang chamber in early 2014, a job which Madden said was meant for “housecleaning” the administration of Jang’s confidants. Kim’s appointment to the General Political Bureau is part of Kim Jong-un’s drive to expand the party’s control over the military, said Ken Gause, director of the International Affairs Group at CNA, a non-profit research and analysis organisation based in Arlington, Virginia.
All of the newly promoted officials are younger than their predecessors, even though they are all in their 60s. The three were also named in May 2016 as alternate members of the ruling Workers’ Party politburo – the opaque, all-powerful governing body where top state affairs are decided.Ri Yong-gil served as chief of staff from 2013 to 2016 until he reportedly fell from grace for a brief period, the analysts said.
In the early 2000s, Ri was commander of an Army unit that defends the perimeter around Pyongyang, a sensitive position that Gause said is traditionally “personally selected” by the leader of the country. In March 2013, he was seen attending a late night meeting convened by Kim to order missile units on “standby” to strike US and South Korean military installations after a US strategic bomber flew over South Korea.
In February 2016, he was briefly demoted to deputy chief and three stars from four for an unspecified reason. South Korean intelligence officials said he had been executed for corruption and abuse of power, only to see him appear at a major party assembly as a politburo candidate three months later. No Kwang-chol, the 62-year-old relatively less known new defence chief, previously headed the Second Economic Committee, which oversees defence production including the nuclear and missile programmes.
“This is where you would send someone you could trust,” said Hong Min, head of North Korea research at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. “No is a person who has come to the fore in the Kim Jong-un era, as a up-and-coming and trusted aide. It is not strange at all if he becomes defence minister.”
Singapore designates special zone for Trump-Kim summit
Singapore has designated a central region of the wealthy city state as a “special event area” from June 10 to 14 for a planned summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the government said yesterday. The area comprising the districts of Tanglin, Newton and Orchard is where the foreign ministry, the US embassy, and several large hotels are located, including the Shangri-La hotel, mentioned as a possible venue for the June 12 summit. The announcement was made in the government’s online gazette. There will be a series of meetings between the two countries over the five days that include “lead-in activities” and social events connected with the summit, it added.
Police will make stricter checks of people and personal property and items such as public address systems and remotely piloted aircraft systems will be prohibited, the notice said. There has been no confirmation of the venue for the summit to discuss ending the North’s nuclear weapons programme in return for diplomatic and economic incentives, although several Singapore hotels have figured as candidates.
Anti-nuclear group offers to foot summit bill
A Nobel Prize-winning anti-nuclear group offered yesterday to pay for next week’s historic summit between the US and North Korea – including the delicate issue of Kim Jong-un’s hotel bill. Who will cough up for lodgings at the five-star Fullerton Hotel, believed to be the North Korean leader’s preferred option, is one of many reported logistical and protocol headaches surrounding this month’s meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump.
The United States is prepared to pay but fears offending cash-poor but pride-rich North Korea, the Washington Post wrote last week. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said it was willing to help resolve the impasse by bankrolling Kim’s delegation, using part of the $1.1mn cash prize it received for winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize. “We are ready to shoulder the cost of the summit, naturally including expenses for accommodation and conference venues,” Akira Kawasaki, an ICAN representative in Japan, told AFP. “If holding the summit is in danger because of financial problems, we are ready to shoulder the cost as it is an important, historic meeting,” he added. Kawasaki declined to say how much ICAN could stump up but said part of the Nobel Prize award would be put to the summit “in order to support peace in the Korean peninsula and a nuclear weapon-free world”.
The sum would be negotiated if North Korea accepted the offer, he said. The presidential suite at the Fullerton boasts, according to its website, a baby grand piano and claims to be “the most exclusive hotel suite in Singapore.” With a private elevator offering exclusive access, the suite is 201 sq m (2,164 sq ft) and reportedly costs more than $6,000 for one night. Reporters camped outside the hotel last week to catch a glimpse of Kim Chang-son, Kim’s de facto chief of staff, who travelled to Singapore to lay the groundwork for the June 12 summit.
The Singapore dialogue will be the first time a sitting US president has met a North Korean leader. Talks are expected to focus on denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and improving relations between Washington and Pyongyang.
