North Korean Policy Elites - Defense Technical Information Center

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work, monitor their communications, and ensure that Kim Jong Il knows everything about each one of his relatives, whereas his own secrecy and privacy are well preserved and no one knows anything about him. Marshal Li Ul-Sol, 16 Kim Il Sung’s closest long-time aide and confident, his former personal aide de camps, and one of Kim Jong Il’s trusted elders, has been the Chief of the Secret Service since 1982. He is a very influential figure in the top leadership. But, because of Marshal Li Ul Sol’s advanced age, the day-to-day operations are believed to be handled by one of Kim Jong Il’s in-laws, Vice-Marshal Chang Sung-U, who is Li Ul-Sol’s first deputy. The Secret Service is a real player, albeit cautious and surreptitious, in all the internal family power feuds. “Power Transmission Belts” Five major political forces affecting all spheres of the North Korean life, namely the national security establishment, the old guard, the technocrats, the local elites, and the “foreign wind,” approach the “extended family clan” with their own visions for national development and policy recommendations for the burning issues of the day, and attempt with different degrees of success to penetrate and influence the Kim “family court” in order to ensure the representation of their corporate interests at the heart of national decision-making at the time of political succession. These five “transmission belts” connect the “hub” of the North Korean policy-making, the Dear Leader and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Kim Jong Il, with the “outer circle” of the North Korean elites, the brain-feeding tubes at the center and in provinces, who also constitute the “protective belt,” absorbing external shocks and safe-guarding the regime from mass discontent. Party membership serves as an entry ticket into the elite club, but increasingly it is taken for granted and is no longer sufficient for the new nomenclature. Access to state assets, prestige, and power, accumulation of private wealth, or government licensing authority is a must to qualify for the new elite status. Among the members of the same interest-based establishment, there may exist significant value gaps on the ideological continuums from conservative to liberal and from moderate to radical. But, different “transmission belts” tend to articulate and aggregate divergent strategic priorities and policy preferences among the North Korean elites. 16 Li Ul-Sol was born in 1920 in South Hamgyong Province. He served in the Chinese Communist Eighth Route Armies together with Kim Il Sung in the 1930s and graduated from the Soviet Military Academy in the 1950s. He became a corps commander in 1962 and commander of the Fifth Army Group in 1968. He has been a member of the WPK Central Military Committee since 1980 and a member of the National Defense Commission since 1990. He was promoted to vice-marshal in 1992 and to full marshal in 1995. IV-20
“National Security Establishment” The “national security establishment” represents the interests of the “power-wielding” bureaucracies, namely, the military (the KPA General Staff, the KPA General Political Department, the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, Pyongyang Defense Command, the MPAF Security Command, etc.), the state security apparatus (the Ministry of People’s Security, the State Security Agency, the Secret Service), the prosecutorial and court system (the Central Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Central Court), the defense industry (Second Economic Committee), and the nuclear establishment (the General Bureau of Atomic Energy, the Yongbyon Atomic Complex, etc.). They use the National Defense Commission as the supreme national power organ to dominate the policy-making agenda in Pyongyang. Table 1 lists the principal Chiefs within the national security establishment who play significant roles in the formulation of the DPRK’s national security strategy, defense policy, and foreign policies. Table IV-1. Composition of the National Security Establishment (Chiefs only) Organization Name Title National Defense Commission Kim Jong Il Cho Myong-rok Yon Hyong-muk Ri Yong-mu Kim Yong-ch’un Kim Il-ch’ol Chon Pyong-ho Ch’oe Ryong-su Paek Se-bong Chairman First Vice-Chairman Vice-Chairman Vice-Chairman Member Member Member Member Member KPA General Political Department Cho Myong-rok Director, First Vice-Marshal, Air Force KPA General Staff Ministry of People’s Armed Forces Kim Yong-ch’un Ri Thae-il Kim Il-ch’ol Chang Sung-U Jong Chang Ryol Chief, Vice-Marshal, Army Deputy Chief, Col.-General (promoted on 4/13/02) Minister, Vice-Marshal, Navy Deputy Minister, Vice-Marshal, Army Deputy Minister, Army General Deputy Minister Ryo Chun Sok MPAF Guards Command Won Ung-hui Commander Four-star General Pyongyang Defense Command Pak Ki-so Vice-Marshal (promoted on 4/13/97) State Security Agency Kim Ch’ol-su Director, Four-star General IV-21
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INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE ANALYSES Nort
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INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE ANALYSES IDA
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CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY & INTROD
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To write accurately about North Kor
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technocrats, provincial and county
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PREFACE This paper will examine in
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ABBREVIATIONS AGI CCSKA COMSEC DoD
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information streams, and from him t
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within the hands of a few individua
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and whether or not he will embarras
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to the lowest-levels of the KPA. As
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strengthening of all armed forces,
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esearch institutes and “think tan
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The primary missions of the Reconna
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communication that generally fall o
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of the State Security Department or
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maintaining strict control over the
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agencies in the ROK and Japan began
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The Guard and Security Commands, wh
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eports that are funneled up through
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Complicating the entire “Kim-cent
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Within the military, this dynamic c
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him that all significant orders and
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Until the 1990s, the electronic med
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II. THE NORTH KOREAN LEADERSHIP: SY
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TABLES 1. Key Family Members in the
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The factional struggles in North Ko
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A. INTRODUCTION By definition, a to
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C. THE TECHNOLOGY OF POWER A Party
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document control bureaus in each mi
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Originally implemented in 1994 and
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Table II-1. Key Family Members in t
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of associates who trace their relat
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September 9, 2003, showed a change
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Chart II-2: Secretariat 5. Kye Ung-
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Members 1. Yi Ul-sul 4. Yi Yong-mu
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Table II-6. Kim Chong-il’s Princi
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Table II-7. Kim Chong-il’s Person
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chance to unfold. In terms of syste
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domestic policy arena, the split is
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At the second echelon of power, Kim
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D. FLOW OF INFORMATION George Kenna
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about things that affect their care
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(ID) and External Liaison (ELD) dep
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For the rest of the North Korean le
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the focus for not only a significan
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At the 11 th Supreme People’s Ass
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There is little doubt that one of t
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decision-making process. Moreover,
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III. THE WELL-INFORMED CADRE RALPH
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY DEFINITIONS AND A
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greater access to first-hand inform
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The first question addressed by thi
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But this lack of enthusiasm is prob
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as the 1950s. 16 The security organ
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Another way to look at divisions wi
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Because the Kim regime governs acco
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guess is that anyone who rises in t
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But even though the media serve as
Page 134 and 135: Newspapers The DPRK’s premier new
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Page 138 and 139: Page 2: • Kim Jong-suk’s develo
Page 140 and 141: This selection of news items presen
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Page 146 and 147: also countries surrounding the Kore
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Page 152 and 153: eceived with little thought and has
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Page 156 and 157: cognitive dissonance, particular ca
Page 159: IV. INSIDE NORTH KOREA’S BLACK BO
Page 163 and 164: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The North Korean
Page 165 and 166: A. BETTER, MERRIER, MORE HOPEFUL LI
Page 167 and 168: In contrast, the optimists believe
Page 169 and 170: to the throne. The State Council us
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Page 181 and 182: also against the second-tier family
Page 183: Kim Sung-ae, who is Kim Il Sung’s
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Page 196 and 197: Bearing in mind Kim Jong Il’s rec
Page 198 and 199: Table IV-2. Composition of the Nort
Page 200 and 201: Cabinet Posts 10 th SPA 11 th SPA R
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Page 204 and 205: Table IV-5. Leading Ideologues Insi
Page 206 and 207: Table IV-7. Regional Origins of Top
Page 208 and 209: “Foreign Wind” The “foreign w
Page 210 and 211: Table IV-10. Some of the Most Influ
Page 212 and 213: Table IV-11. The North-South “Han
Page 214 and 215: Song Sok Hwan Vice-Minister Cha Sun
Page 216 and 217: Table IV-13. Korean-American “Int
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Page 220 and 221: Northern security, military, and pa
Page 223: APPENDIX B TONGIL STREET FREE MARKE
Page 227: V. REACHING INTO NORTH KOREA DAVID
Page 231 and 232: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY North Korea is no
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isk escape from the hermit kingdom.
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Society is divided into three broad
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contradictions.” 17 This makes se
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Internet is not specifically mentio
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led to a training program for young
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North Korea’s exports from legiti
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een the biggest buyers of ivory ove
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worker who travels throughout North
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If we want to reach into North Kore
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conversations with the correct mix
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Although the future of cellular tel
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There are a host of other things on
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Each of the five papers in this col
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promotions) and punishments (e.g.,
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although presumably all calls are m
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cultural rules.” Given the “str
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Speaking of Kim, whom does he consu
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Terms of Reference: North Korean Po
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Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. is an intern
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APPENDIX C ASIAN VIEWS OF NORTH KOR
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In any case, the reforms provide a
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View from Seoul The single most imp
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