North Korean House of Cards

as it related to the KWP Administrative Department. On December 22, 2013, he
reportedly issued an order for all administrative departments at the provincial, city,
and county levels to cease their work pending an investigation. 524 This was followed
by the purge of those individuals directly tied to Jang Song-taek and his two key
lieutenants, Ri Ryong-ha and Jang Su-gil. In the following months, nearly all officials
tied to the KWP Administrative Department apparatus were demoted, excluded
from future appointments, and reassigned throughout the Party apparatus. 525 In
January 2014, Mun Kyong-tok, who was the head of the Pyongyang apparatus, an
alternate member of the Politburo, and had once served in the KWP Administrative
Department, 526 disappeared from public functions. 527 It was reported that the KWP
Administrative Department was unceremoniously disbanded in February 2014. Most
of its functions were returned to the KWP OGD.
Command and control of the internal security apparatus was not placed under
the KWP OGD, except for the authority to vet senior appointments, which never
left the OGD. 528 Instead, direct oversight for the MPS and the SSD rests with Kim
Jong-un in his capacity as the First Chairman of the NDC. In other words, the chain
of command that ran up through the KWP Administrative Department to the Vice
Chairman of the NDC, has been severed. 529 The chart below shows the realignment
of authority within the internal security apparatus.
524 “Source Says Purge Spreads to DPRK’s Regional Areas After Jang’s Execution,” Yonhap News
Agency, December 22, 2013.
525 Ishimaru Jiro, “North Korean Authorities Distribute Jang Song-thaek ‘Purge List’ to Local
Officials,” AsiaPress International, January 28, 2014. The executions and purges that accompanied these
demotions appear to have been widespread, but the stories are largely apocryphal. According to one
report, some 3,000 people regarded to be affiliated with “Jang’s faction” were displaced from Pyongyang
to Ryanggang Province.
526 Mun was a Kim Il-sung Youth League cadre under Jang Song-taek when the latter was Director.
In addition, in the late 2000s, he assisted Jang in the KWP Administrative Department. Due to these
ties, he was quickly promoted to KWP Secretary for Pyongyang Affairs in 2010.
527 “‘Jang’s Confidant’ Mun Kyong Tok Disappears From the North’s Official Events…Has He
Been Purged?” Yonhap News Agency, February 18, 2014.
528 However, according to defector reporting in late 2015, the OGD established the “7th
Group” to assume many of the tasks that the Administrtive Department had once been responsible for.
The 7th Group is reportedly an independent agency, but they get comprehensive guidance from the
OGD. See Lee Sang-Yong, “Organization, Guidance Department ‘7th Group’ Rises in Power,” Daily NK,
October 1, 2015.
529 Author’s interviews with Pyongyang-watchers in Seoul, May 2014.
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