1st Vice Director
of the Chosun Workers’ Party [KWP] Organization and Guidance Department Hwang
Pyong So has been elevated to the rank of Vice Marshal of the Chosun People’s
Army (KPA), North Korea’s media announced today.
This appears to be Hwang’s second promotion in a month after he emerged at a military event in Pyongyang on the 15th bearing the insignia of a four-star general, indicating his increasingly prominent role within North Korea’s power elite.
The decision to confer the title was made on the 26th
by the Worker’s Party Central Military Commission and the National Defense Commission,
Chosun Central News Agency said.
Hwang now holds the same military rank as Choe Ryong Hae, director
of North Korea’s powerful KPA General Political
Bureau. Both Choe and Hwang are close aides of Kim Jong Eun and regularly appear at his side during public engagements.
67-year-old Hwang is widely reported to have been a university classmate
of Kim Jong Eun’s aunt Kim Kyong Hui and reportedly maintained close ties with
Kim Jong Eun’s mother Ko Yong Hui.
