Changes afoot: North shakes up military leadership

WASHINGTON/SEOUL: North Korea’s top three military officials have been removed from their posts, a senior US official said yesterday, a move analysts said could support efforts by the North’s young leader to jumpstart economic development and engage with the world.

Kim Jong Un is preparing for a highstakes 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 on condition of anonymity, was commenting on a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that all three of the North’s top military officials were thought to have been replaced.

Kim’s motivation remains unclear but analysts said the shakeup 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.

Citing an unidentified intelligence official, Yonhap said No Kwang Chol, first viceminister of the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, had replaced Pak Yong Sik as defence chief, while Ri Myong Su was replaced by his deputy, Ri Yong Gil.

North Korean state media previously confirmed Army General Kim Su Gil had replaced Kim Jong Gak as director of the KPA’s General Political Bureau.

Nobel Prize winning antinuclear campaign group Ican has offered to pay the cost of the summit between Kim and Trump, including the hotel bill for Kim.

The offer comes after a media report that the cashstrapped North may have trouble bearing the cost of its leader’s stay in Singapore and the large delegation of security and support staff. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican), which won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, said it was willing to use its prize money to pay for any accommodation or meeting space needed to make the summit a success. — Reuters