North Korean House of Cards

Name Position(s) Comments
Kim Yanggon
(73)
• Member of the
Politburo (since
August 2015)
The UFD is the Party’s intelligence agency
dedicated to South Korean operations.
Kim’s role in facilitating dialogue between
• KWP Secretary
for South
Korean Affairs
(since 2010)
the two Koreas in the past was rarely
acknowledged but highly significant. Kim
Yang-gon is Kim Jong-il’s cousin and was
a close confidant. In October 2014, he
• Director of
the KWP
United Front
Department
(UFD) (since
2007)
was part of a three-person delegation,
along with Choe Ryong-hae and Hwang
Pyong-so, that visited Seoul in an effort to
restart inter-Korean relations. In August
2015, he accompanied Hwang Pyong-so
to Panmunjon to negotiate an exit from
the inter-Korean crisis following North
Korea’s firing of artillery across the DMZ.
In the same month, the North Korean
media referred to him as a full member of
the Politburo. He was ranked sixteenth on
both Kim Kuk-tae’s and Jon Pyong-ho’s
Funeral Committee lists.
Jo Yon-jun
(76)
• Alternate
member of the
Politburo (since
2012)
• First Vice
Director of the
KWP OGD
Jo Yon-jun handles political and economic
issues inside the OGD. He is believed to be
one of Kim Jong-un’s key allies within the
OGD. He was ranked 24th on Kim Kuktae’s
Funeral Committee list and 22nd on
Jon Pyong-ho’s Funeral Committee list.
Ken E. Gause
79