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North Korean Policy Elites - Defense Technical Information Center

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There is little doubt that one of the lessons Kim Chong-il learned from this incident was<br />

the danger of outside influence on elite politics.<br />

• In 1997, following the execution of KWP Secretary So Kwan-hui, a number of Kim Ilsung<br />

Socialist Youth League officials were executed as spies for accepting money from<br />

South <strong>Korean</strong> companies. Even Chang Song-taek was implicated in the scandal, but<br />

received light punishment because of his relationship to Kim Chong-il.<br />

• In 1998, several cadres closely associated with <strong>North</strong> <strong>Korean</strong> foreign policy failed to win<br />

nominations as candidates for the SPA. While the reason for this purge is not clear, it did<br />

result in the demotion of numerous cadres who had special outside knowledge of<br />

peninsula affairs, as well as diplomatic affairs in general. Among those who were<br />

affected by this purge included Chon Kum-chol (Vice Chairman of the Committee for<br />

Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland), Im Chun-kil (member of the SPA’s Unification<br />

<strong>Policy</strong> Committee), Kwon Hui-kyong (director, KWP CC’s External <strong>Information</strong><br />

Collection Department), Yi Chang-son (former director, KWP CC’s Social and Cultural<br />

Department), Chong Tu-hwan (Chairman, Fatherland Front), Chon Sin-hyok (Deputy<br />

Chairman, Fatherland Front), Hyon Chun-kuk (director, KWP CC’s International<br />

Department), Pak Kil-yon (Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs), and Son Song-pil<br />

(former Ambassador to Russia). 80<br />

• While the circumstances surrounding Kim Yong-sun’s death are still not clear, it closes<br />

down a significant independent pipeline of information into the senior leadership. Kim<br />

Yong-sun’s patronage system and network of contacts within the elite were extensive.<br />

Many of these elites, such as Kim Chong-il’s sister, Kim Kyong-hui, and mistress, Ko<br />

Yong-hui, relied on this relationship for information and foreign goods. 81<br />

E. CONCLUSION<br />

The long-term survival of the Kim Chong-il regime will be determined by Kim’s ability<br />

to control the <strong>North</strong> <strong>Korean</strong> elite. Kim Il-sung was able to control the ruling circle through a<br />

vertical division of labor - the Leader ruled the party, and the party controlled the state and the<br />

army. Kim Chong-il dismantled this practice and has been trying to directly control the ruling<br />

troika and the individual power elites. Relying on a strategy of divide-and-rule and internally<br />

restricting the flow of information, he has been able to maintain his grip on the regime. But, this<br />

strategy has the tendency to create cleavages, which will increasingly make it difficult to manage<br />

all the power groups/elites. As pressure on the regime grows, three factors will be critical:<br />

legitimacy, system vulnerabilities, and warlordism.<br />

to create a pro-Soviet organization within the KPA in the 1980s. This plan was exposed after the fall of the Soviet<br />

Union.<br />

80 “Analysis of the Results of the 10th SPA Deputies Election,” Seoul Naewoe T'ongs (July 31, 1998).<br />

81 Kim’s relationship with Kim Kyong-hui is discussed in Hwang Chang-yop’s memoirs, op. cit.<br />

II-41

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