North Korean House of Cards

Rocket Force.” According to some sources, Kim Jong-un has a special
attachment to the SRF in that it reflects the high tech part of the armed
forces. During the March/April crisis of 2013, Kim Rak-gyom was
one of four military officers pictured briefing Kim Jong-un against a
backdrop of a map showing the ranges of North Korean missiles. The
SRF Command is a unified command of all short-, medium- and
intermediate-range missile units under the NDC. Thus, Kim Rak-gyom
most likely has direct channels of communication to a number of
NDC members, including Kim Jong-un, the First Chairman, and the
members who hold defense industry portfolios.
3. Government
• Yang Hyong-sop (90) has been a member of the Politburo since 2010
and Vice President of the SPA Presidium since 1998. Born in 1925,
Yang is a member of the first generation of North Korean leaders. He
is also tied to the Kim family through marriage. 729 His career has been
spent in the SPA apparatus. He was elected Chairman of the Standing
Committee of the SPA in 1983, after having been a vice chairman
since 1962. In this capacity, he assumed the functions of de facto head
of state after Kim Il-sung’s death in 1994, as the post of President of
the DPRK was never re-assigned. In 1998, a new Constitution passed
the President’s powers to the President of the Presidium and Yang was
replaced by Kim Yong-nam in that capacity. He occasionally receives
foreign delegations and leads North Korean delegations abroad. He
will likely be retired in the coming years, but for now he is one of the
lynchpins within the regime that demonstrate continuity with both
the Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung eras. His ties to Kim Jong-un are
vague at best, and his communications with the senior leadership most
likely were with Kim Kyong-hui and Jang Song-taek. Following Jang’s
purge and Kim’s apparent incapacitation, his channel to the Supreme
Leader is unclear, although he did rank 11th on Jon Pyong-ho’s Funeral
Committee list.
• Ro Tu-chol (71) has been an alternate member of the Politburo since
2012, Vice Premier since 2003, and Chairman of the State Planning
Commission (SPC) since 2009. His ties to Kim Jong-un and the
729 Yang Hyong-sop is married to Kim Sin-suk, who is the daughter of Kim Il-sung’s father’s sister.
Ken E. Gause
315