North Korea recently carried out a major personnel reshuffle in the Ministry of Defense’s Rear Services General Bureau, an important agency that organizes, directs, and supervises logistics of the North Korean army.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Daily NK source in the North Korean military said Monday that an expanded meeting of the North Korean military’s party committee was held last month “to improve the logistics of the Korean People’s Army to a higher level in line with the requirements of this fast-changing era.”
The source said the General Bureau of Rear Area Services has been reshuffling personnel in its major departments since Mar. 4 in accordance with the decision of the expanded meeting.
North Korea is reassigning existing officers in the Rear Services General Bureau’s food, clothing, fuel and medical services departments and replacing them with commanders in the logistics departments of the army’s frontline Fourth and Fifth Corps and frontline navy and air force units.
The aim of the reshuffle is to breathe new life into the logistics sector by bringing to Pyongyang a large number of relatively young officers who are well acquainted with the supply situation of frontline soldiers, sailors and airmen, the source said.
“Many people say that the decision of the Korean People’s Army Party Committee is aimed at preventing negligence on the part of officers who have been in Pyongyang for a long time and supervised the logistics sector of the army, while directing more efforts to the supply of soldiers mobilized for economic construction.”
In short, the reshuffle suggests that the military’s party committee has quickly moved to meet the requirements set out by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s “20×10 regional development policy,” which has led to the mobilization of soldiers to build factories in provincial areas.
Authorities demand vigilance against corruption
Meanwhile, North Korean authorities are demanding that officers newly assigned to the major departments of the Rear Services General Bureau pay attention to the management of logistics. Essentially, this amounts to the authorities laying the groundwork to prevent potential corruption and other illegal behavior.
“The authorities are urging the new officers to respond vigilantly to even the slightest phenomena or factors that harm the unity of the party and revolutionary ranks or destroy the one-hearted unity of the army through the party’s military control system. They are also calling on soldiers to wage an intensive struggle against such phenomena, encouraging them to do a good job in Pyongyang just as they did when they were tightening their belts on the frontlines,” the source said.
“[The authorities] don’t usually make major personnel moves in March, the last month of winter training, but this year they are bringing up-and-coming officers in the logistics sector to Pyongyang and repeatedly urging them to do their best to supply the rear of the military,” the source said. “I think this reflects the leadership’s desire for officials to pay special attention to the logistics of the Korean People’s Army, which is in charge of both war preparations and economic construction.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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