North Korean House of Cards

ii. Cordon of Security: Relationship with Office 6 of the
Personal Secretariat
In 1980, the existence of Kim Jong-il’s personal security detail, known as
Office 6, or the Office of Adjutants, was revealed. It is a unit of approximately 1,200
officers and soldiers led by individuals with twenty-five to thirty years of previous
experience in the GC. Presumably, this unit remains intact under Kim Jong-un in
similar numbers.
Chart 20: Organizational Chart of Office 6 580
Supreme Leader’s
Personal
Secretariat
Guard Command
No. 6 Office
Director
Plans
Department
Training
Department
Body Guard
Department
Events
Department
5th Department
Rear Area
Department
Transport
Department
Editing
Department
Direct relationship
Indirect relationship
According to some reports, the Director of Office 6 is Colonel General Ko
Su-il, the brother of Ko Yong-hui, Kim Jong-un’s mother. 581 Ko was ranked 134th
on Kim Jong-il’s Funeral Committee list. He was appointed an alternate member of
the Central Committee in 2010 and was one of the first recipients of the Order of
Kim Jong-il in February 2012. Under Kim Jong-il, Ko Su-il was a member of the
GC responsible for guarding the Supreme Leader’s residences. He began to appear
580 This chart is based on interviews and a number of sources, including Joseph S. Bermudez, Jr.,
Shield of the Great Leader (St. Leonards, Australia: Allen and Unwin, 2001), and Atsushi Shimizu, An
Overview of the North Korean Intelligence System: The Reality of the Enormous Apparatus that Supports the
Dictatorship, op. cit.
581 Choe Seon-Yeong and Jang Yong-Hun, “Kim Jong-un’s Uncle Reported to be in Charge of
Kim’s Personal Security,” Yonhap News Agency, September 22, 2013.
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
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