Seoul watches change in North Korea military

South Korea is monitoring developments in the North’s armed forces, it said yesterday after reports that Pyongyang had replaced three of its most senior military officials ahead of a summit with the United States.

President Donald Trump is due to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore and Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal will be 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 Mr Kim is habitually flanked by generals on one side and civilians on the other when attending major ceremonial events.

Last month, the North’s state media revealed that Kim Su-gil had been appointed director of the military’s powerful General Political Bureau, 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to Yonhap news agency, which cited intelligence sources, the chief of the general staff, Ri Myong-su, has also been replaced by his deputy, Ri Yong-gil.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 Yongsik has been succeeded by No Kwang-chol, previously first vice minister, it said.

The wholesale reshuffle would be unusual if confirmed, Seoul’s unification ministry said.

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.

“Both of these things lend themselves to creating alternate power centres.”

But Kim Su-gil was a “highly trusted” lieutenant of leader Mr Kim, it said.

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.

Analysts said the personnel change was more likely to be 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 in South Korea.

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.

Also yesterday, the Russian state news agency said President Vladimir Putin could meet Mr Kim in the Russian city of Vladivostok in September.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who visited Pyongyang last week, passed the North Korean leader an invitation from Mr Putin to visit Russia during its Eastern Economic Forum.

The news came after Syrian President Bashar Al Assad announced last month that he plans to visit the North Korean leader.