North Korea shakes up top army brass ahead of summit
Move seen consolidating Kim leadership, says analyst
SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – North Korea’s top three military officials have been removed from their posts, a senior US official said, a move analysts said on Monday could support efforts by the North’s young leader to jump-start economic development and engage with the world.
Kim Jong Un is preparing for a high-stakes summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12, the first such meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting US president.
The US official, who spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity, was commenting on a report by South Korea’s Yonhap agency that all three of the top military officials were believed to have been replaced.
Kim’s motivation remains unclear but analysts said the shake-up allows him and the ruling party to tighten control over the Korean People’s Army (KPA) at a critical time of international engagement and domestic development.
“If Kim Jong Un is set on making peace with the US and South Korea and dealing away at least part of the nuclear program, he will have to put the KPA’s influence in a box and keep it there,” said Ken Gause, director of the International Affairs Group at CNA, a non-profit research and analysis organization.
“This reshuffle has brought to the fore the officers who can do just that. They are loyal to Kim Jong Un and no one else.”
Trump revived the Singapore summit on Friday after canceling it a week earlier.
The US is seeking a negotiated end to Korea’s nuclear weapons program and US officials believe there was some dissension in the military about Kim’s approaches to South Korea and the United States.
Trump wants North Korea to “denuclearize,” or get rid of its nuclear arsenal, in return for relief from economic sanctions. North Korea’s leadership is believed to regard nuclear weapons as crucial to its survival, while Kim has said he plans to focus on economic development.
The US official did not identify the three ousted military officials.
Citing an unidentified intelligence official, Yonhap said No Kwang Chol, first vice minister of the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, had replaced Pak Yong Sik as defense chief, while Ri Myong Su was replaced by his deputy, Ri Yong Gil.
North Korean state media previously confirmed that Army General Kim Su Gil had replaced Kim Jong Gak as director of the KPA’s General Political Bureau.
The White House, State Department, CIA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond immediately to requests for official comment.
South Korea’s unification and defense ministries declined to confirm the report, while an official at the Unification Ministry said the government was watching the North’s leadership very closely.
South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-hwa had a 15-minute phone call with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday to discuss the upcoming summit between Kim and Trump, the foreign ministry in Seoul said.
Given the military’s secondary role in the North’s nuclear and missile programs, the moves are likely more about installing a younger, even more trusted cohort of officials who Kim Jong Un can rely on as he confronts a variety of domestic and international issues, said Michael Madden, a North Korea expert at Johns Hopkins University’s 38 North website. “The nuclear weapons are a side issue,” he said.
The moves are likely linked in part to Kim’s drive to have the military take a bigger role in critical infrastructure projects. That could explain why newly appointed director of the KPA’s General Political Bureau, Army General Kim Su Gil, accompanied Kim on a field guidance trip to a beach tourist zone with other officials, Madden said.