North Korean House of Cards

Chart 21: Organizational Chart of the State Security Department 603
Director
First Vice Director
Vice Director
Organization
Vice Director
Propaganda
Vice Director
Cadres
Vice Director
Inspection
Vice Director
Rear Services
Ministry of
People’s Security
Liaison Office
Special
Missions Group
Hospital
State Security
University
Training Center
Trading
Companies
(Sinhung)
Bureau (Guk) and
Administrative
Offices
General Guidance (1st Bureau)
Counterespionage (2nd Bureau)
External Counterintelligence/Counterespionage (3rd Bureau)
Protection and Security
CI of Central Government Offices
CI Security Offices
Coastal Security (5th Bureau)
Prison Camps (Farm Management Bureau, 7th Bureau)
Border Security (8th Bureau)
Investigation (10th Bureau)
Prosecution (11th Bureau)
Preliminary Examination
Communications Interception (12th Bureau)
Surveillance (13th Bureau)
North/South Dialog
Border Guard Unit
Regional Affairs
Room 312 (Terrorism in South Korea)
Commercial Affairs (Economic Inspections)
Liaison with Court System
CI for Foreign Country Workers
CI for Universities
CI for North Koreans Abroad
Military Industrial Security
Gold Mine Management
General Affairs
Arsenal
Customs
Engineering/Technology
Computer Security (16th Bureau)
Chemical Affairs
Strategic Research
Nuclear Power (Yongbyon Nuclear Facility)
Finance and Supply
Data/Document Management
Equipment
Rear Services
Entry/Exit Management
Each bureau of the SSD is under the direction of a chief and under him are
an array of positions including managers (bu-jang), section chiefs (gwa-jang), and
guidance members (ji-do-won). Of these positions, section chiefs are particularly
important because they control SSD agents in the field. Each of North Korea’s
nine provinces has a SSD office, which more or less replicates the structure of the
headquarters in Pyongyang. 604 The provincial SSD (An-jeon Bo-wi-bu) office is
603 This chart is based on interviews and several sources, including Kang Cheol-Hwan and
Lee Gyo-Gwan, “NK Report: State Security Department…Stops Even a Running Train,” The Chosun
Ilbo, March 12, 2002; Yun Tae-il, The Inside Story of the SSD (Seoul: Chosun Monthly, 1998); Joseph S.
Bermudez, Jr., Shield of the Great Leader, op. cit.; and Atsushi Shimizu, An Overview of the North Korean
Intelligence System: The Reality of the Enormous Apparatus that Supports the Dictatorship, op. cit.
604 Concurrent with the creation of the SSD in the 1970s, provincial SSD offices were created
and assumed the missions of the provincial public security sections (an-jeon-gwa) of the provincial
public security departments (an-jeon-guk). In the 1980s, these offices were redesignated provincial SSD
(An-jeon Bo-wi-bu).
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
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