Choi Stays on Top of Military Pile

The recent plenum of North Korea’s Party Central Committee and subsequent session of the Supreme People’s Assembly did not bring any substantive changes in the North Korean regime. Aside from Pak Pong Ju being returned to the post of Cabinet prime minister, presumably to try and improve the economy, Choi Ryong Hae’s supremacy in the Chosun People’s Army was the only conspicuous result.

North Korea’s three key military agencies are the General Political Department, General Staff Department and Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces. Choi Ryong Hae, as director of the General Political Department, remains a Politburo Standing Committee member.

Conversely, Hyun Young Chul, the Chief-of-Staff, and Kim Kyok Sik, the Minister of the People’s Armed Forces, were expected to become members of the Politburo this week, but are still only candidate members. Although Kim did become a member of the National Defense Commission, Hyun did not, leaving Choi in overall control of military affairs. Former ministers Kim Jeong Gak and Lee Myung Su left the National Defense Commission.

Meanwhile, greatly exaggerated rumors of Jang Sung Taek having been purged were also put to bed when he appeared on the rostrum near Kim Jong Eun.