North Korean House of Cards

• General Ri Yong-gil (60) has been the Chief of the GSD since August
2013 and an alternate member of the Politburo since April 2014. His
rise has been dramatic. He is a former commander of the Third and
Fifth Corps and a member of the third generation of military officers.
At the end of March 2013, he was identified as the Director of the
GSD’s Operations Bureau during a briefing for Kim Jong-un. The
briefing was part of an emergency operations meeting on the KPA
SRF’s “firepower strike plan.” 651 In May 2015, he accompanied Vice
Marshal Choe Ryong-hae to China as part of a high-profile visit to
examine the relationship in the aftermath of the two-month crisis on
the Korean peninsula. During the Kim Jong-il era, the director of the
GSD Operations Bureau had a direct channel to the Supreme Leader,
bypassing the chief of the GSD. Following Ri’s appointment to this
post, some believed that Kim Jong-un’s understanding of military affairs
improved. Ri’s promotion to Chief of the GSD has likely negated the
need for informal channels, as Ri now has a direct and formal channel
through which to provide military advice to the Supreme Leader. The
importance of this link is underscored by the fact that, unlike the heads
of the GPB and the MPAF, the GSD Chief was not overturned in 2014.
Ri was ranked fourth and fifth respectively on Kim Kuk-tae’s and Jon
Pyong-ho’s Funeral Committee lists.
• General Kim Won-hong (70) has been a member of the Politburo
since 2012, the CMC since 2010, and the NDC since 2012. As
the Director of the SSD, Kim formally reported to Jang Song-taek,
the KWP Director of Administrative Affairs and Vice Chairman of
the NDC, before his downfall. 652 This formal reporting chain was
augmented by Kim Won-hong’s informal channel to Kim Jong-un
on issues of a sensitive nature, a channel that has likely become more
formalized since Jang’s purge. Kim Won-hong’s status has been tied
to Kim Jong-un more than that of any other member of the North
Korean leadership. He publicly appeared in leadership circles in 2010
and has been a frequent member of Kim Jong-un’s guidance inspections,
where he would have direct access to the Supreme Leader. He is also
rumored to have particularly close ties to Kim Kyong-hui, going back
651 “Kim Jong Un Holds Operations Meeting March 29, Ratifies Plan for Firepower Strike,”
KCBS, March 29, 2013.
652 Ken E. Gause, Coercion, Control, Surveillance, and Punishment: An Examination of the North
Korean Police State (Washington, D.C.: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2012).
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
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