N. Korea switches up top military bosses
Bringing in younger officials?
SEOUL — Three of North Korea’s top military officials have been replaced, a South Korean news agency reported Monday, marking an apparent shake-up in leader Kim Jong Un’s inner circle before next week’s planned summit with President Donald Trump.
The report by the Yonhap news agency, citing an intelligence source, could not be independently verified.
But, if confirmed, the moves raise two contrasting scenarios: part of an ongoing reorganization in military leadership by Kim, or possibly a far-reaching intervention to bring in younger military overseers to replace older ranks possibly at odds with his outreach to the U.S. and its ally South Korea.
The officials who reportedly were dropped are from some of the highest reaches of the North’s military structure, including Ri Myong Su, the chief of general staff for the Korean People’s Army. Ri was thought to be a confidant of Kim’s father, the late leader Kim Jong Il.
The others dismissed, according to Yonhap, were defence chief Pak Yong Sik and Kim Jong Gak, director of the political bureau of the North Korean army.
It was unclear when the changes were carried out, but plans to replace Kim Jong Gak were reported in the North Korean media last month, Yonhap said.
North Korea made no immediate reference to any military changes, and it remains difficult to assess whether the shake-up could signal a significant change in North Korean policies.
It appeared, however, that it represented some level of generational shift. All the officials who were reportedly promoted were younger than those dismissed, according to Yonhap, including the new general staff chief, Ri Yong Gil, who at 63 is 21 years younger than the outgoing Ri Myong Su.
Kim Yong Hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, said the reported new military leadership brings expertise in military-run economic affairs rather than combat strategies.
This could be a sign that the North Korean leader is “pursuing a new policy to become a developing country without nuclear weapons, rather than a poor country with nuclear weapons,” he said.