On the 21st, Rodong Sinmun reported on a rare meeting of internal military security officials. Only the second such meeting in North Korean history, and the first since 1993, the meeting was likely convened to enhance the form and function of the military security service, a mainstay of the rigid North Korean dictatorship.

The article, entitled “Second Meeting of Security Personnel of KPA Held,” explained that, in addition to elite military officials such as Choi Ryong Hae, “Present at the meeting were [...] commanding officers of the armed forces organs, and political commissars of all services and army corps and security personnel of the ground, naval and air and anti-air forces and strategic rocket force, military academies at different levels and other organs of the armed forces."

The officials and agents cited were almost certainly drawn from the ranks of Defense Security Command. The agency is one of three major planks of systemic security, along with the National Security Agency and Ministry of Public Security.

The front page article continued by explaining that Kim Jong Eun took charge of ensuring the successful hosting of the event as someone who “always pay[s] deep attention to the security work of the KPA.” Kim reportedly sent the participants coming to the meeting a letter titled, "Let's Further Improve and Strengthen the Security Work in the People's Army as Required by the Period of Historic Turn in Accomplishing the Revolutionary Cause of Juche.”

Agents working for Defense Security Command report straight to the supreme commander of the military, in this case Kim Jong Eun. They are dispatched down to all platoon and company-level units, from which they are obliged to pass information on trends among commanding officers and other data on unit security matters directly up to the leadership, bypassing standard military chains of command. As such, they are positioned to forestall anti-regime activities and, most importantly, ensure that any plans for coups against the current leadership are picked up.

Commenting on the meeting, Park Young Ho, a senior researcher with the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification explained, "One aspect of this is that they want to stop holes appearing in systemic security while they are doing more and more deals with the outside world in pursuit of economic development and hard currency inflows."

Moreover, Park added that the Kim regime is constantly seeking to dismiss the “young and naive” appearance of Kim Jong Eun while also “showing off his leadership and the secure nature of the system.”