Kim Jong Un relocates defense ministry under the cabinet

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is moving to strengthen his image as a leader who works for people by diluting military image in the course of solidifying his regime. In the process, there are also changes to the status of the North Korean military.

In the fourth meeting of the 13th Supreme People’s Assembly held on June 29, the title of North Korea’s Ministry of People’s Armed Forces changed to the Department of the People’s Armed Forces. The news was made public as the North’s Korean Central TV station called Minister of People’s Armed Forces Park Yong Shik as Secretary of the People’s Armed Forces at a Pyongyang City ceremony to congratulate the promotion of Kim Jong Un to the chairman of the National Affairs Commission at the Kim Il Sung Square on Saturday.

In North Korea, a ministry is higher than a department in hierarchy. The Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces, the Ministry of State Security, and the Ministry of People’s Security, which are key organizations in maintaining the communist regime, are called ministries and belong to the powerful National Defense Commission, while the other organizations are called departments and are under the Cabinet.

“We need to check further whether the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces has been transferred to the Cabinet, or only had its name changed and remains under the National Defense Commission, whose name changed to the National Affairs Commission," the South Korean Unification Ministry said on Monday. The promotion of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland to a state agency was announced via its state newspaper, but Pyongyang has yet to announce the change of the title of the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces.

Soldiers with field units are not being treated as well as they used to be. Hwang Pyong So, director of the general politburo who was elected vice chair of the National Affairs Commission, is effectively a member of the ruling party who had long served as vice director in charge of the military in the leadership of the Workers’ Party. Park Yong Shik, secretary of the Department of the People’s Armed Forces, also served as vice director of organization at the general politburo, and is a political military officer and close aide to Hwang Pyong So.

On the other hand, military field officers are being purged. Such figures include army chiefs of the general staff Ri Yong Ho (purged), who was considered No. 2 soon after Kim Jong Un seized power, Hyon Yong Chol (executed), and Ri Yong Gil (demoted). Since Kim Jong Un’s inauguration, minister of the People’s Armed Forces has been replaced six times, and army chief of the general staff has been replaced five times. Thus, North Korean power elites who hailed from field army only served 10 months on average per person.

“The situation has happened in the process wherein the power of the military, which became huge political group and interest group during the course of military first politics during the Kim Jong Il era, are depowered, and order of party-centered ruling is restored,” said Kim Kap-shik, senior researcher at the (South) Korean Institute of National Unification. Analysts say chances are high the phenomenon has emerged as Kim Jong Un does not trust the military, while he is trying to solidify his grip in power.

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