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North Korea Shuffles Leaders
SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Il shook up his country's leadership ranks Monday, a move that appeared part of a broad strategy to consolidate his power before he passes control to his son.
North Korea's official media said Monday that Mr. Kim installed his brother-in-law to a role considered the country's second-most-powerful. He also named a longtime family confidant to what is in effect the No. 3 position, the premiership.
That represents North Korea's highest-level leadership shuffle since the beginning of this year, a period in which 11 prominent members of the regime have died, been replaced or been shuffled out of view, according to a count by the website NK Leadership Watch.
The meaning of the moves is subject to speculation, as is much of the trickle of official news out of the secretive and authoritarian North. The appointments didn't appear to be a direct response to the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, analysts said. The North's announcement didn't mention the ship, the Cheonan, or the subsequent standoff with Seoul, which has accused the north of sinking it.
Kim Jong Il inspects a bottle during a visit to the Namheung Youth Chemistry Combination Company at an undisclosed place in North Korea in this undated picture released by the country's official news agency Monday.
"There was no discussion about the Cheonan stuff," said Kim Young-soo, a professor at Sogang University in Seoul. "It was more focused on internal politics and administration."
Yet in a broader sense, analysts have seen Pyongyang's leadership shuffle and the Cheonan sinking as components of Mr. Kim's strategy to rein in disorder and rally North Koreans around the country's military ahead of what they believe is his plan to hand power to his third son, Kim Jong Eun.
Since the North Korean leader suffered a stroke-like episode in August 2008, the country has tested missiles and a nuclear device, a series of provocations analysts believe are meant to rally the country around the military. They speculate that the North's alleged sinking of the Cheonan was a continuation of this effort.
Kim Dynasty
North Korea's frayed relations with South Korea have cut off an important source of income, forcing it to rely more heavily on China, which is under international pressure to rein in the North.
Pyongyang has also been coping with protests, hunger and deaths since the government's apparently unsuccessful attempt late last year to manage economic reform. Pyongyang's issuance of new currency and closure of markets in December backfired, causing the regime to look for people who could take blame away from Mr. Kim.
Those efforts resulted in shake-ups in several lower positions Monday, said Kim Young-soo, a professor at Sogang University in Seoul, noting the use of the term "recall" in the North's official announcement.
"In North Korea, when the regime 'recalls' an official, it means the person wrongly implemented policies and should take responsibility for it," said Mr. Kim. "So the recalled officials, not Kim Jong Il, are publicly blamed for their failed handling of the administration."
Monday's announcement by North Korean official media said Mr. Kim named Jang Song Taek, who is married to Kim Jong Il's younger sister, as vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, North Korea's highest state body. Analysts have considered Mr. Jang the second-most-powerful person in the country in recent years, a role certified with Monday's posting.
Kim Jong Il is chairman of the Defense Commission, his only official title.
The leader also named longtime family confidant Choe Yong Rim to the premiership, a position that is nominally the second in command but that analysts believe ranks below the job he gave to his brother-in-law. Mr. Choe succeeds Kim Yong Il, whose travels overseas gave him more contact with foreign leaders than even Kim Jong Il. The two Kims aren't related.
Mr. Kim personally presided over a parliamentary session where the changes were approved. The meeting was special because it was the second time parliament met this year; it usually meets once. Mr. Kim didn't attend its regularly scheduled meeting in early April.
This year has seen several other changes in Pyongyang's inner circle. Last week, a close associate of Mr. Kim's, Ri Je Gang, died in a car accident one day after attending an art performance with Mr. Kim. Mr. Ri, who was 80, held a high-ranking job in the ruling Korean Workers' Party. His influence was believed to trail only that of Mr. Kim and his brother-in-law.
Mr. Ri was active in promoting heir apparent Kim Jong Eun and had been close to his late mother. It isn't known whether Mr. Ri was a candidate for the premiership. His death has fueled speculation that he may have been deliberately killed in a power struggle, but analysts note that if that were the case, it is unlikely his passing would have been announced in North Korea's state media.
The high-level death followed the disappearance earlier this year of another official, Pak Nam Gi, who some South Korean media reports said was executed for the country's economic-reform mess.
Mr. Jang has been seen since 2007 as Mr. Kim's closest aide, and is believed to play a key role in rallying support among the country's elite for Kim Jong Eun to succeed the dictator.
Mr. Jang, who is 64 years old and whose background is in political operations of the regime, was appointed just last year to the defense commission.
"Kim wants to keep more tight grip on party elites and people by giving more power to Jang," says Cheong Seong-chang, director of inter-Korean studies at the Sejong Institute, a private think tank in Seoul.
Mr. Jang becomes one of four vice chairmen of the 11-person commission, though he is the one closest to Kim Jong Il.
The new premier, Mr. Choe, 81, has been associated with the ruling Kim family for decades. He served as a confidential secretary to Mr. Kim's father, Kim Il Sung, who started North Korea in 1948 and led it until his death in 1994. He most recently served as chief secretary of the Pyongyang City Committee of the Korean Workers' Party and, in recent months, attended numerous public functions with Kim Jong Il, including a trip to the remote city of Hamhung and the opening of an indoor swimming pool in Pyongyang.
Mr. Choe was economic planning minister in the 1980s, mining minister in the 1990s and chief prosecutor in Pyongyang earlier this decade. (The Wall Street Journal)