North Korean House of Cards

afforded Jang the opportunity to meet with the Chinese leadership and forge relations
that later became suspect to those closest to Kim Jong-un.
In the following years, Jang was portrayed by international media as a
proponent of free markets and the official responsible for implementing Kim Jong-il’s
second phase of economic reform. 105 However, this optimism gradually faded. Jang
was linked to even more drastic measures to restrict markets, such as banning private
hiring and tightening age and gender restrictions on those who could participate in
market activity. 106 By 2009, he was considered a proponent of a constricted economic
policy that stress ed social stability. 107 His meager reform goals were focused on the
SEZs along the border with China where he could conduct any number of hard
currency operations that fed into his growing empire. 108
Jang’s wife, Kim Kyong-hui, reappeared in public in 2009 after a long hiatus.
This not only signaled that the forthcoming succession would be handled by the
Kim family, but it also created the space for Jang to enhance his own power at the
expense of his rivals. As Kim Jong-il began to rely more on Jang Song-taek in the
aftermath of his stroke in 2008, Jang was able to expand his patronage system and
tie it into his ever-expanding hard currency operations. This was made clear in early
2010, when Jang took on the currency operations of his rival O Kuk-ryol by creating
a trading firm called the Korea Daepung Group. 109 His growing power and influence
manifested with the deaths of his two principal rivals in the OGD, Ri Je-gang and
Ri Yong-chol, both of whom passed away in 2010 on the eve of Jang’s elevation to
Vice Chairman of the NDC. 110
105 Seo Jae-Jin, “Significance of Jang Song-taek’s Visit to China,” Korea Institute for National
Unification: Online Series 06, No. 3 (March 31, 2006).
106 Choi Jin-Wook, “The Changing Party-State System and Outlook for Reform in North Korea,”
International Journal of Korean Unification Studies 18, No. 1 (2009). Choi Jin-wook is the current acting
Director of KINU.
107 Park Hyeong-Jung, “North Korean Conservative Policy Since 2006 and Jang Song-taek:
Looking at 2009,” Korea Institute for National Unification: Online Series 08, No. 72 (December 23, 2008).
108 Following Kim Jong-il’s death and Kim Jong-un’s announcement of the June economic
measures in 2012, many began to re-evaluate where Jang stood on reform. Maybe he was a closet reformer.
The view of his desire to use his relationship with China to increase his own power did not change.
109 Lee Young-Jong, “O Kuk Ryol, Who Returned Around the Time of Jang Song Taek’s
Downfall,” Korea JoongAng Daily, December 25, 2013.
110 Ri Yong-chol died on April 27, 2010 of a heart attack. Ri Je-gang died a little over a month
later on June 2, 2010 in a mysterious car accident. Jang Song-taek was promoted to Vice Chairman of
the NDC on June 7, 2010.
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
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