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North Korean Policy Elites - Defense Technical Information Center

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Below are some of the general trading corporations - so-called foreign currency-earning<br />

companies - and the bureaucracies they serve. These companies offer 30 percent of their annual<br />

budget to the KWP CC’s Office 39 each year, in the name of foreign currency earned for<br />

“loyalty.” 77 General Trading Corporation Patron Organization<br />

Maebong General Trading<br />

Corporation<br />

Unha General Trading Corporation<br />

Samch’olli General Corporation<br />

Unbyol Trading Company<br />

Kumnung Trading Corporation<br />

Ministry of People’s Armed Forces<br />

Administration Council’s Light<br />

Industry Committee<br />

Administration Council’s External<br />

Economic Committee<br />

WPK Central Committee’s League<br />

of Socialist Working Youth of Korea<br />

Ministry of Machine Industry<br />

These ventures, however, are very risky because they can attract allegations of corruption<br />

and foreign espionage and can be used by the regime as a convenient excuse to purge officials<br />

who have fallen out of favor. There is little doubt that Kim Chong-il’s apparatus knows about<br />

these independent operations and can make use of them or destroy them if they become a<br />

threat. 78<br />

Efforts to Close Down Independent Channels of <strong>Information</strong><br />

Kim Chong-il on occasion has taken steps to close down independent channels of<br />

information to the senior leadership. Unlike efforts to restrict internal information flow, such as<br />

the institution of a comprehensive information management plan, access to external information<br />

has been restricted through purges and demotions.<br />

• The 1993 coup led to Kim Chong-il’s strategy, which has been resurrected several times<br />

since, to curb the elite’s access to the outside world. After putting down the coup attempt,<br />

Kim issued a special order to have all military officers, technicians, and scientists who<br />

had studied in the Soviet Union confined to hard labor for three years. In addition, he<br />

recalled all students studying in Russia and Eastern Europe. Finally, he retired all <strong>North</strong><br />

<strong>Korean</strong> military officers below the age of 50 who had studied in the Soviet Union. 79<br />

77 U Chong-ch’ang, “ROK Monthly on DPRK Kim Chong-il’s Slush Fund Deposits in Swiss Banks,” Seoul, Wolgan<br />

Choson (November 1, 2000), FBIS translation KPP20001019000046.<br />

78 Such a purification campaign took place in the late 1990s when several <strong>North</strong> <strong>Korean</strong> economic officials were<br />

purged for espionage related to their dealings with South Korea. It is rumored that some officials form alliances<br />

with security agencies to thwart the monitoring system. Discussion with <strong>North</strong> <strong>Korean</strong> analysts at the <strong>Korean</strong><br />

Institute for National Unification, December 2003.<br />

79 In addition to the retirements, over 300 high-ranking officers with contacts to the Soviet Union were allegedly<br />

executed between 1992 and 1994. According to one <strong>North</strong> <strong>Korean</strong> defector, the Soviet Union had actively sought<br />

II-40

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