SEOUL — North Korea’s state media on Thursday confirmed the removal of a hard-line general as its military chief, the latest sign of a military overhaul in which the country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, has replaced nearly half of his country’s top officials in the past two years, according to South Korean officials.
North Korean Leader Tightens Grip with Removal of Top General
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: October 10, 2013
The firing of Gen. Kim Kyok-sik and the rise of Gen. Ri Yong-gil to replace him as head of the general staff of the North’s Korean People’s Army was the latest in a series of high-profile reshuffles that Kim Jong-un has engineered to consolidate his grip on the North’s top elites.
Since taking power upon the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in late 2011, Kim Jong-un has replaced 44 percent of North Korea’s 218 top military, party and government officials, the South’s Ministry of Unification said in a report. He engineered this and other reshuffles to retire or sideline the old generals from his father’s days and promote a new set of aides who will owe their loyalty directly to him.
The reordering of top jobs has accelerated since July last year, when Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho, one of the most powerful men under Mr. Kim’s father, was suddenly fired as chief of the general staff of the North Korean military. He was replaced by Vice Marshal Hyon Yong-chol. Mr. Hyon didn’t last long either as he was soon demoted and replaced by Gen. Kim Kyok-sik in May.
Gen. Kim, 74, had been one of the oldest aides of Kim Jong-il still holding a top job even after Kim Jong-un promoted younger generals. South Korean officials believed that General Kim commanded units responsible for sinking one of South Korea’s warships and shelling a South Korean border island in 2010, attacks that killed 50 South Koreans.
But his name disappeared from the North’s state media after the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party met in August to discuss personnel matters.
Little is known about Ri Yong-gil, who is in charge of the field operations of the North Korean military as chief of its general staff. He gained the attention of outside analysts when North Korean media reported that he was one of the generals who advised Mr. Kim this spring when North Korea threatened the United States and South Korea with nuclear strikes.
South Korean officials believed that General Ri was appointed military chief during the August meeting of the Central Military Commission.
But North Korean media mentioned his new title for the first time on Thursday in dispatches listing those who accompanied Mr. Kim while visiting a Pyongyang mausoleum where his father and his grandfather, the founding President Kim Il-sung, lie in state. Thursday was the 68th anniversary of the Workers’ Party.
General Ri joins Gen. Jang Jong-nam, who became minister of the armed forces in May, and Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, the military’s top political officer, as Kim Jong-un’s top three military aides.
Among the three, Vice Marshal Choe, director of the General Political Department of the North Korean People’s Army, was considered the most powerful. He appeared with Mr. Kim in North Korean media more often than any other member of the North Korean elite. Mr. Choe, a former party secretary, had never served in the army and South Korean analysts see his sudden rise in the military ranks under Mr. Kim as a sign that Mr. Kim was letting the party reassert its influence over the military as he vowed to channel more national resources into the rebuilding of the economy.
Meanwhile, North Korean media late Wednesday showed Mr. Kim inspecting a housing project together with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, who has been a focus of lurid gossip in the region in recent weeks.
In August, the conservative daily Chosun Ilbo in South Korea reported that Mr. Kim ordered the executions of a dozen North Korean performers, including the singer Hyon Song-wol, who the paper said was Mr. Kim’s former girlfriend, for making videos of themselves performing sex acts and then selling the recordings.
Then, last month, Japan’s daily Asahi Shimbun reported that Mr. Kim ordered the executions to prevent the spreading of rumors that his wife was also engaged in similar acts when she was a singer.
North Korea called the reports “an unpardonable hideous provocation hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership” and promised a “stern punishment.”
Nam Jae-joon, director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, told lawmakers in Seoul that his agency was aware of the executions but had no information on Ms. Ri’s reported involvement.