North Korean House of Cards

had been executed by anti-aircraft fire for treason. 644 In the same timeframe,
rumors emerged that Kim Chun-sam, Pyon In-son’s successor as Director of GSD
Operations, and Han Kwang-sang, the head of the KWP Finance Department, had
been purged .645 The removal of these key advisors, all of whom were presumably
handpicked by Kim himself, raised questions about the process of power consolidation.
Whether these moves were done out of desperation, malice, or part of a
calculated strategy to keep the wider leadership off balance was not clear as this book
went to print.
1. Military/Security
• Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong-so (66) is Director of the GPB (2014),
a member of the Politburo Presidium (2015), and Vice Chairman
of the NDC (2014). Born in 1949, he attended the Mangyongdae
Revolutionary Academy and Kim Il-sung University. He came onto
the public scene in 2002 when he received the Order of Kim Il-sung
for strengthening “single-hearted unity of the entire society” and
nate member of the Politburo (since 2013), and member of the NDC (2014). His rise through the ranks
paralleled the period in which Kim Jong-un became the heir apparent, which suggested that there might
have been a relationship between the two. For reasons that are still unclear, he was replaced as chief of the
General Staff (a month after being raised to the Politburo) in 2013 and appointed the commander of the
Fifth Corps with a reduction in rank from a four-star to a three-star general. Nearly one year later, in June
(2014), he was appointed Minister of the People’s Armed Forces, replacing Jang Jong-nam. Hyon was
re-promoted to four-star general. He was listed sixth on Jon Pyong-ho’s Funeral Committee list. At the
September 2014 meeting of the SPA, he replaced Jang Jong-nam on the NDC.
644 Yu Shin-Mo, Bak Eun-Gyeong, and Yu Jeong-In, “Kim Jong-un’s Reign Of Terror: North Korean
Military’s Second in Command Purged,” The Kyunghyang Shinmun, May 14, 2015. An oddity surrounding
Hyon’s apparent purge is that he continued to appear in the North Korean media days after his apparent
execution on April 30, 2015. He appeared in a documentary on Kim Jong-un’s military inspections, which
aired on May 5, 11, and 12. One explanation for this apparent departure in how the North Korean media
handles leaders who have fallen afoul of the Supreme Leader is that the regime did not want to alert the outside
world (and maybe the wider leadership) to Hyon’s purge. Apparently, Kim Jong-un’s ability to lead was
challenged in the aftermath of the Ri Yong-ho purge when the media announced his immediate retirement
due to health issues (coded language that suggested he had been purged).
645 Han Kwang-sang (57) was the director of the KWP Finance and Accounting Department. He
emerged on the political scene in January 2010 as part of Kim Jong-il’s guidance inspection of the Hyangsan
Hotel. He was identified as a first vice director of the KWP. In May 2012, his name began to appear
before the heads of the first vice directors of the KWP Organization and Guidance and Propaganda and
Agitation departments, something that suggested that he had been promoted to a director of a Central
Committee department. The KWP FAD manages the Party’s funds and assets and is responsible for the
welfare of cadres and employees working for the central Party apparatus. As such, Han most likely had
some access to Kim Jong-un, the extent of which was currently unclear. He was ranked thirtieth on Jon
Pyong-ho’s Funeral Committee list.
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
288