North Korean House of Cards

associate, these fortunes began to change. The Ministry became closely tied to
the new Supreme Leader while the KPISF remained linked to Jang Song-taek.
With the purge of Jang Song-taek and the collapse of the apartment building in
Pyongyang, for which Choe Pu-il had to apologize, the MPS’s influence seemed
to plummet. Choe Pu-il disappeared from public view and was rumored to have
been purged. In mid-2015, however, the MPS has undergone a resurgence, at
least in profile. Choe Pu-il returned to the public eye and was even featured in
photographs of a CMC meeting in which Kim Jong-un was dealing with the
inter-Korean crisis following the landmine explosions on the DMZ. While the
MPS is no longer at the center of a power vacuum within the internal security
apparatus, its political influence within this apparatus continues to pale in
comparison to the other security-based institutions.
e. Military Security Command
The MSC (Bo-wi Sa-ryeong-bu) is the counterintelligence and counterespionage
organization within the North Korean military, responsible for internal security
within the KPA. It actively seeks out elements that are corrupt, disloyal, or present
a potential coup threat by conducting investigations, surveillance, and wiretapping
of high-ranking general officers in their offices and homes. 629 In addition, it has the
authority to make arrests on evidence of criminal activity or political unreliability.
North Korea’s police agencies cannot report to the government offices they
report on. The MSC, which reports officially to the MPAF up to the NDC, reported
directly to Kim Jong-il in the past. This practice presumably continues under Kim
Jong-un. It regularly produces reports on the ideological trends, friendships, and
daily activities of general officers. The Minister of the People’s Armed Forces takes
these reports, together with similar reports from the GPB, and forwards them to the
Leader’s Personal Secretariat. These reports often provide the evidence upon which
periodic purges of the armed forces are launched. On occasion, the MSC is tasked
with special purpose, non-military investigations.
Aside from its police function, the MSC’s mandate also extends to providing
security for the Leader during his visits to military units, handling the residential
registration for military officers and their families, and monitoring military and
civilian movements along North Korea’s borders. Despite its broad mission and
629 Atsushi Shimizu, An Overview of the North Korean Intelligence System: The Reality of the
Enormous Apparatus that Supports the Dictatorship, op. cit. According to this source, for officers with the
rank of major general or above, either their driver or senior deputy reports to the MSC.
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