hankyoreh

By Kim Su-heon, staff reporter

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said on Dec. 3 that head of the Central Administrative Department of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) Jang Song-thaek, 67, could have been purged. Jang, the uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and as Kim’s guardian, Jang had effectively been the number two man in the North Korean regime.

If Jang was in fact ousted, this is expected to not only result in changes to the structure of power inside North Korea but to also have a significant effect on inter-Korean relations in the future.

In a press release, the NIS said that two of Jang’s closest associates in the KWP Administration Department - first deputy director Ri Ryong-ha and deputy director Jang Su-gil - were publicly executed at the end of November and that it appeared very likely that Jang had been sacked as well. The NIS also said that Pyongyang was taking subsequent action against the organizations under Jang’s authority and the people connected to him.

The NIS reported these claims in the afternoon of Dec. 3 in a meeting with Seo Sang-gi, chair of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, along with Cho Won-jin and Jung Cheong-rae, lawmakers with the ruling and opposition parties.

“It is our understanding that Jang is currently being detained somewhere in North Korea,” said a diplomatic source on condition of anonymity. “It appears that Kim Jong-un viewed Jang as a threat. Since Jang was favorable to economic reform, the popular sentiment was that quality of life would improve if he took power. It appeared that this led to his undoing.”

As the husband of Kim Kyong-hui, the younger sister of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Jang was the son-in-law of Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea. While Kim Jong-il was still in good health, Jang experienced a couple of setbacks in his rise to power, but after Kim’s stroke, Jang’s influence in the regime rapidly increased.

After Kim Jong-un took the leadership of North Korea in Dec. 2011 after the death of his father, Jang became one of the two most powerful figures in North Korea along with People’s Army Politburo Chief Choi Ryong-hae.

Jang is regarded as the person who created the political system in which the WPK is superior to the military and is credited with introducing elements of market economics and other reforms. In the WPK, Jang was head of the administrative division, a member of the Central Military Commission, and a member of the Central Committee; in the government, he was vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, chairman of the State Physical Culture and Sports Guidance Commission, and a delegate to the Supreme People’s Assembly; in the army, he was a four-star general.

But there were indications that his influence was being curtailed this year when North Korea’s State Security Department carried out a secret investigation into charges that his associates were guilty of corruption. His publicly reported activities decreased to half of what was reported in the previous year.

“North Korea is internally spreading the news that Jang’s associates were publicly executed for corruption and other anti-Party behavior and is carrying out ideological education that stresses absolute devotion to Kim Jong-un. We are being told this is part of a concerted effort to suppress internal unrest,” the NIS said. “It’s highly probable that Jang has been dismissed from all of his positions. We believe that it is very likely that the Party’s Administrative Department will be stripped of its powers or dismantled altogether.”

North Korean WPK’s newspaper the Rodong Shinmun ran an article on Dec. 1 stating that Kim Jong-un is working to set up a single leader system and that the country’s destiny is to stay with Kim Jong-un until the end of the world. The NIS believes this article is connected with these developments.

The NIS said that it had not confirmed anything about the whereabouts of Kim Kyong-hui, Jang’s wife, who sources say opposed Jang’s ouster.

“In the sense that Jang’s associates were executed on charges of anti-Party activity, [it can be inferred that] the State Security Department and the Party’s Organization and Guidance Department were involved, and considering the nature of the incident, it does not appear that this could have happened without the sanction of Kim Jong-un,” said a source at the NIS who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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