North Korean House of Cards

Supreme Command apparatus to the GSD for implementation. This
office is also home to the Supreme Leader’s senior military advisors.
According to several senior-level defectors, Kim Kyok-sik, until his
death in May 2015, was Chief of this office. 364
• The Office of Military Officers is responsible for coordinating counterintelligence
on the armed forces. It is a small office with approximately
twenty agents who work closely with the GPB and the MSC. Under
Kim Jong-il, Kim Du-nam, the younger brother of Kim Yong-nam,
oversaw this office. Since Kim Du-nam’s death in 2009, a new head of
this office has not been identified.
• The Office of Military Liaison Officers is the direct link between Kim
Jong-un’s Personal Secretariat and the Supreme Command. It is responsible
for issuing orders from Kim in his capacity as Supreme Commander
of the Armed Forces. Under Kim Jong-il, this office was led by two
senior liaison officers, An Yong-chol and Nam Yong-chol, both of whom
come from military families with ties to Kim Il-sung. 365 It is likely that
they have been replaced by officers closer to Kim Jong-un.
• The Documents Office 15 is the office primarily responsible for
routing documents to and from Kim Jong-un’s Personal Secretariat.
Critical to this function is its link to the KWP General Affairs Office,
which is responsible for facilitating communications throughout
the Party apparatus. Documents Office 15’s Consolidation Division
coordinates paperwork with the KWP General Affairs’ Office
120. This is how agendas are coordinated for senior Party meetings
364 Interview with North Korean defectors, 2013 and 2014. Kim Kyok-sik’s career, while it
predated Kim Jong-un’s appointment as heir apparent, was tied to the succession. After apparently being
demoted in February 2009 (one month after Kim Jong-un’s status was announced within North
Korean leadership circles) from Chief of the GSD to Commander of the Fourth Corps, Kim oversaw the
operations tied to the heir apparent’s rise to power. From his position as commander of the western front,
Kim Kyok-sik may have played a role in both the sinking of Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island—the
first event was critical to the succession, and the second was designed to bolster Kim Jong-un’s
credentials as a military leader. He was made an alternate member of the KWP Central Committee at
the Third Party Conference. In November 2011, he returned to the GSD as a Vice Chief and, according
to defector sources, following Kim Jong-il’s death, he moved into Kim Jong-un’s Personal Secretariat as a
military advisor, a position he held until taking over the MPAF. At the Central Committee Plenum and SPA
in 2013, he was made an alternate member of the Politburo and a member of the NDC. After leaving
these posts, he presumably returned to Kim’s Personal Secretariat as the senior military advisor. On May
11, 2015, Nodong Sinmun reported that Kim Kyok-sik had died of cancer. See “Obituary on the Death of
Comrade Kim Kyok-sik,” Nodong Sinmun, May 11, 2015.
365 An Yong-chol is a son of anti-Japan partisan fighter General An Kil, and Nam Yong-chol
is a son of General Nam Il who served as North Korea’s representative to the armistice talks during the
Korean War.
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
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