North Korea’s military authorities conducted a sweeping inspection of military security activities over the last five years by corps-level security departments. The latest inspection was conducted by the ruling party’s Military Government Guidance Bureau and the Korean People’s Army’s General Political Bureau.
“A full-scale inspection of the military’s corps-level security bodies was conducted from early July to early this month per a No. 1 directive,” a Daily NK source in the North Korean military said recently, referring to an order from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“Personnel from the Military Government Guidance Bureau and the General Political Bureau conducted an unprecedented inspection, personally visiting the security bodies at corps’ headquarters and conducting an unprecedented inspection of the security bodies’ activities over the last five years.”
The latest inspection follows a decision taken during the 12th expanded plenary meeting of the ruling party’s Eighth Central Committee in June, with the Military Government Guidance Bureau and the General Political Bureau directly entrusted with the task.
The results of the inspection and personnel moves involving major officials were sent as a final report to the Central Committee on Aug. 8 as “documentation on the completion of a No. 1 directive.”
According to the source, the latest inspection was conducted in two ways. Problematic or critical security departments received personal visits from inspection teams for onsite guidance, while the rest sent written reports to inspectors, who reviewed only the necessary parts.
Five-point inspection targets corruption and control
The inspection focused on five key areas: uncovering corruption, evaluating security officials and replacing personnel, revising security duty guidelines, adjusting the structure of corps-level security departments, and reestablishing cooperation between the administrative, political and security bodies within corps-level formations.
As a follow-up measure, military authorities will replace officials, punish those involved in corruption and inspect the application of revised duty guidelines through the end of the month. At the same time, they will put into trial operation an information reporting system that includes lower-ranked units.
“The report system was transformed so that corps-level security departments report information simultaneously to the responsible departments in the Defense Security Bureau and Military Governance Guidance Department within 24 hours,” the source said. “In the past, it took a long time to report incidents in lower units to the top via the Defense Security Bureau, but going forward, the time will be shortened.”
North Korean military personnel believe the inspection of corps-level security bodies was intended to strengthen internal control by establishing a centralized information and inspection system. This means they interpret the inspection as a move to enhance control over the military using the military’s own security bodies ahead of next year’s Ninth Party Congress.
“Some military security guidance officers say the goal of the latest inspection isn’t simply strengthening discipline,” the source said. “Given that the military was newly tasked with unifying its information network, people predict that going forward, a structure will take root in which internal trends within units will be quickly reported to the leadership.”
