Observers speak of uncertainty as North Korean leader fires spy chief

February 6, 2017 by Joseph Fitsanakis

Observers of North Korean politics raised alarm bells over the weekend, as it emerged that Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un fired his spy chief, interfering for the first time with a state institution that had not until now experienced major purges. The news circulated on Friday, following a report by South Korea’s Ministry of Unification —Seoul’s government department responsible for promoting the reunification of Korea. The ministry said that, according to its sources in the North, General Kim Won-hong had been dismissed from his post as Minister for State Security.

Kim is believed to have joined the Korean People’s Army (KPA) in 1962, at age 17. He rose through the ranks of the military to become a commander and a commissar (political officer) with the KPA’s General Political Bureau. In 1998, Kim was elected to North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, which functions as the country’s parliament. In 2003, the North Korean leadership appointed Kim to director of the Military Security Command —the North Korean Army’s intelligence directorate. By 2009, Kim had been made a General and had entered the personal circle of Kim Jong-un. In 2011, when Kim Jong-un became supreme leader of North Korea, General Kim was widely viewed as one of his most trusted advisors. Few were surprised, therefore, when Kim was made State Security Minister, in April 2012. From that position, General Kim oversaw the activities of the regime’s secret state police, North Korea’s most powerful security institution, which is answerable only to the country’s supreme leader.

But it now appears that General Kim was dismissed from his powerful post two weeks into 2017, allegedly on charges of corruption and abuse of state power. Some reports suggest that his dismissal may be related to the defection of Thae Yong-ho, a senior North Korean diplomat who defected with his family while serving in the country’s embassy in London last year. It is also believed that Kim was demoted from a four-star to a one-star general.

Since he assumed power in the country in late 2011, Kim Jong-un has purged several layers of elite government apparatchiks. But he has not interfered in the country’s intelligence and security agencies. Thus, if General Kim was indeed dismissed, it would mark the first major demotion of a senior official in the Ministry of State Security in over six years. Some observers suggest that Kim’s demotion may mark the beginning of a major round of purges in the country’s security and intelligence services. But others think that that Kim was demoted by the country’s supreme leader in a pre-emptive action aimed at preventing a possible military coup against him.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 06 February 2017 | Permalink