The Daily NK has learned that the recent mass purge of more than 30 cadres from the provincial and municipal arms of the Party in North Pyongan Province and Shinuiju City came about as part of efforts to help bed in the Kim Jong Eun era while aiding new provincial Party Chief Secretary Lee Man Geon in taking hold of provincial affairs. <\/p>\n
3 of the top 10 figures in the North Pyongan Province Party hierarchy were among those swept away in the purge at the start of last month, including the provincial Party propaganda and guidance heads and figures from within the security apparatus. <\/p>\n
Lee, who reportedly led the purge, rose to his current position as a result of the promotion of predecessor Kim Pyeong Hae to a central Party post at the Chosun Workers\u2019 Party Delegates\u2019 Conference in September, 2010<\/p>\n
However, it appears that, partly because Kim had been promoted rather than removed, Lee struggled for almost a year to seize control of the provincial levers of power. Accordingly, the current assessment from inside North Korea is that Lee, with the backing of Kim Jong Eun, launched a power struggle to liquidate the Kim Pyeong Hae faction.<\/p>\n
One source explained more today, saying, \u201cOn July 6th, a \u2018gruppa\u2019 from the central Party accompanied the General on an onsite inspection in Shinuiju, and they did some extensive vetting of provincial and city cadres. At that time, Chief Secretary Lee Man Geon joined with the Kim Jong Eun faction and set about sorting them out on charges of corruption.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cLee Man Geon read Kim Jong Eun\u2019s mind and, so as to implant the successor\u2019s faction, actively pursued charges of corruption against the cadres then kicked them out,\u201d the source went on.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Kim Pyeong Hae, who had become a candidate member of the Politburo and the head of the Party Cadres Department, also appears to have stopped work for the time being.<\/p>\n
According to the source, \u201cKim Pyeong Hae was stopped from working in the middle of September. His second son Kim Cheong Ho (former guidance head for the Shinuiju municipal Party) also lost his job; this really surprised Shinuiju cadres.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim Pyeong Hae has not been seen in public since September 12th, after appearing on name lists at public events every day from the 8th until that time. That does not mean that Kim has been removed permanently, it is too early to say that, but it does appear that he may have been taken out of the front line for the time being. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Daily NK has learned that the recent mass purge of more than 30 cadres from the provincial and municipal arms of the Party in North Pyongan Province and Shinuiju City came about as part of efforts to help bed in the Kim Jong Eun era while aiding new provincial Party Chief Secretary Lee Man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":16763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[645],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy"],"yoast_head":"\n