North Korean House of Cards

apparatus as the vice director of the KWP Finance and Accounting
Department’s Design Office, which oversees the design of facilities
exclusively used by the Kim family and other members of the senior
leadership. Kim sent Ma to China in 2001 to learn Chinese construction
techniques. Ma began accompanying Kim Jong-un on May 9,
2012, when the new leader conducted a guidance inspection of the
Mangyongdae Amusement Park in Pyongyang. Within days of the
collapse of the Pyongyang apartment building in May 2014, Ma was
appointed to his current position and given the rank of lieutenant
general, presumably to authorize him to guide directly and administratively
various kinds of construction work carried out by the People’s
Security Ministry, which is responsible for much of the important
construction in the capitol. 675 In 2015, Ma apparently had a falling
out with Kim Jong-un following the latter’s displeasure with the
renovations to the Pyongyang International Airport. He was purged
and reportedly forced to work on a farm in Yanggang Province with
his family. In October 2015, he was featured in the North Korean
media as part of a delegation accompanying Kim Jong-un to Rason.
Photographs of the inspection suggested that Ma had been demoted
in rank to major general. 676
B. KEY INDIVIDUALS IN THE SECOND ECHELON
OF THE LEADERSHIP
In addition to those closest to Kim Jong-un, the wider North Korean
leadership is composed of echelons of power where many of the formal elite belong.
The second echelon includes officials who hold critical positions within the leadership.
They are responsible for relevant policy areas or have control over critical resources
and patronage systems. These officials can provide advice and intelligence but have no
decision-making authority. Many have also cultivated a close relationship with Kim
Jong-un since 2010, when he became the heir apparent. Some within this echelon
675 It is estimated that the number of soldier-builders mobilized for various kinds of construction
sites, which numbered around 100,000 each year during Kim Jong-il’s regime, has sharply increased
to around 200,000 during the Kim Jong-un regime. See “Why Did the North Appoint Party Vice
Department Director Ma Won-chun as Director of National Defense Commission Design Department?”
NoCutNews, May 19, 2014.
676 “Kim Jong Un Visits Newly Built ‘Village’ in Rason,” KCNA, October 7, 2015.
Ken E. Gause
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