Kim Jong Un Visits Panmunjom

Kim Jong Un (2nd R) looks through binoculars across the DMZ into South Korea during an inspection of sites in and around P'anmunjo'm. Also in attendance is Gen. Pak Jae Gyong (L) and Gen. Kim Yong Chol (R). Since 2009 Gen. Kim has managed military intelligence operations against South Korea. Closely linked to Kim Jong Un's succession, he was promoted to 4-star general in February 2012. (Photo: KCNA)

DPRK state media reported on 4 March (Sunday) that Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) inspected P’anmunjo’m, a DPRK settlement near the demilitarized zone on the DPRK-ROK border.  According to KCNA Kim Jong Un told service personnel stationed there to “maintain the maximum alertness as they are standing in confrontation with the enemies at all times.”  Attending to his visit were Gen. Pak Jae Gyong, Gen. Kim Yong Chol and Col. Gen. Jo Kyong Chol.

Kim Jong Un (3rd L) visiting P'anmunjo'm. Also in this image are: Kim Yang Gon (5th L), Pak Pong Ju (6th L), Gen. Pak Jae Gyong (7th L), Kang Sok Ju (4th R), Jang Song Taek (3rd R) and Kim Ki Nam (2nd R) (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)

Kim Jong Un (1st row, C) poses for a commemorative photograph near a monument of the autograph of Kim Il Sung, his grandfather, the late DPRK President and country founder. Also seen in this image are: Mun Kyong Dok (1st row, L), Choe Ryo'ng-hae (1st row, 2nd L), Pak To Chun (1st row, 3rd L), Jang Song Taek (1st row, 4th L), Kim Yang Gon (1st row, 2nd R), Kim Ki Nam (1st row, 3rd R), Ri Jae Il (2nd Row, 2nd L), Han Kwang Sang (2nd row, 5th L) Pak Pong Ju (2nd row, C), Gen. Kim Yong Chol (2nd row, 6th R), Gen. Pak Jae Gyong (2nd row 5th R), Col. Gen. Jo Kyong Chol (2nd row, 4th R) and Hwang Pyong So (2nd row, R) (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)

Also attendance were Kim Yang Gon (KWP Secretary and Director of the United Front Department), Jang Song Taek, Kang Sok Ju (DPRK Cabinet Vice Premier), Kim Ki Nam (KWP Secretary and Director of Propaganda), Pak To Chun (KWP Secretary of Military Industries), Mun Kyong Dok (KWP Secretary), Choe Ryo’ng-hae (KWP Secretary), Ri Jae Il (KWP Propaganda Senior Deputy Director), Hwang Pyong So (KWP Organization Guidance Deputy Director), Pak Pong Ju (KWP Light Industries Deputy Director) and Han Kwang Sang (KWP Finance and Accounting Deputy Director).

KCNA reports:

He was greeted on the spot by commanding officers of the unit standing guard over Panmunjom.

After receiving a report on the unit’s performance of combat duty, he went to the dangerous forefront.

He first visited the Monument to President Kim Il Sung’s Signature standing sublimely at Panmunjom.

He had a photo taken with the officials accompanying him before the monument.

Then he went up to the balcony of the Phanmun Pavilion to learn in detail about the enemy movements.

He expressed great satisfaction over the fact that all the soldiers on the outpost duty were following every move of the enemies with vigilance and performing their combat duties in a responsible manner with strong class resolution to defend the socialist country at the cost of their lives. He highly appreciated their feats.

He told the soldiers on the outpost duty at Panmunjom to always maintain the maximum alertness as they are standing in confrontation with the enemies at all times.

He met those soldiers who had finished their combat duties and had a photo taken with them.

He went round several places of Panmunjom including the Phanmun Pavilion, the Thongil House, the conference room of the armistice talks and the hall where the armistice agreement was signed.

He stressed the need to preserve and manage well the conference room of the armistice talks and the hall where the armistice agreement was signed associated with the history of the great Fatherland Liberation War in which the KPA defeated the imperialist allied forces and the Phanmun Pavilion and the Thongil House which reflect the will of the Korean people to reunify the country in order to show them to the generations to come who will live in the reunified country.

Underlining the need to glorify generation after generation the feats heroic Korea performed by winning victory in the war fought to beat back the U.S.-led imperialist allied forces, startling the world, he emphasized that if a fight occurs in the future, the army and people of the DPRK will force the enemies to sign a paper of surrender, not simply putting signature on the armistice agreement, their knees bent.

Going round a bedroom, mess hall and gymnasium of the soldiers standing guard over Panmunjom and other places, he learned in detail about their service and life.

He put forth the important tasks which would serve as guidelines for increasing the combat capability of the unit.

The Korean people can sleep well and he feels reassured as the soldiers on the outpost duty are defending the gate of the country as firm as an iron wall, he said, adding that he fully believes in them.

He gave them a pair of binoculars, an automatic rifle and a machine gun as souvenirs and had a photo session with them.

The late DPRK leader Kim Jong Il inspects an area near P'anmunjo'm on 24 November 1996, five days after the DPRK closed its liaison office there. Seen in this image are the late VMar Jo Myong Rok (R), Jang Song Taek (2nd R) and Gen. Hyon Chol Hae (4th R) (KCNA file photo)

Service members of the KPA gather for a mass rally on Kim Il Sung Square in central Pyongyang, broadcasted on state television on Sunday, 4 March 2012. (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)

Chief of the Korean People's Army General Staff, VMar Ri Yong Ho, delivers the keynote speech during a mass rally held in Pyongyang on 4 March 2012. Also on the rostrum in this image are: KWP Secretaries Mun Kyong Dok (2nd L) and Kim Yang Gon (3rd L); NDC Vice Chairmen Gen. O Kuk Ryol (4th L), VMar Ri Yong Mu (5th L) and VMar Kim Yong Chun (6th L); DPRK Cabinet Premier Choe Yong Rim (7th L); and, KWP Secretaries Kim Ki Nam (8th L) and Choe Tae Bok (9th L) (Photo: KCNA)

Kim Jong Un’s visit occurred before Korean People’s Army [KPA] personnel and DPRK citizens gathered for a mass rally in Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang.  Choe Sang Hun writes in the New York Times:

Such rhetoric notwithstanding, North  Korea struck a deal last week with its sworn enemy, the United States, agreeing to suspend its nuclear weapons tests and uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors to monitor activities at its main nuclear complex. In return, North Korea will receive 240,000 tons of food aid from Washington.

But the country spurned a repeated call by Washington to improve ties with South  Korea, and has instead kept up its criticism of the South, where elections later this year will serve as a referendum on President Lee Myung-bak’s  policies toward the North.

Over the weekend, North Korea escalated its militaristic rhetoric and  threats, criticizing a joint American-South  Korean military drill. It  also seized on a poster in a South  Korean military barracks that was  leaked last week. That poster said: “Let’s beat  Kim Jong-il to death! Let’s strike Kim  Jong-un to death!”

On Sunday, North Korean television  broadcast a rally of 150,000 people  in the capital of Pyongyang vowing to punish  the South for insulting their leader.

Photographs by the North  Korean media showed soldiers  and railroad workers shaking their  rifles and fists under slogans like “Let’s  tear the traitor Lee Myung-bak to  pieces!” or “Let’s beat the psychopathic traitor Lee Myung-bak to death!”

Also on Sunday, the North’s foreign  ministry accused Mr. Lee of trying to  disrupt American efforts to engage the  North.

South Korean officials stood by their  policy of not responding to  these invectives, which  they considered propaganda aimed  at driving a wedge between  Washington and Seoul and inciting a  political dispute within the South in an  election year.

Another view of the rostrum overlooking Kim Il Sung Square where VMar Ri Yong Ho (8th L) delivers a speech to a mass rally. In this image are: Gen. Pak Jae Gyong (L), Minister of People's Security Gen. Ri Myong Su (2nd L), Ministry of State Security Political Bureau Director Col. Gen. Kim Chang Sop (3rd L), NDC Member and Minister of State Security Gen. U Tong Chuk (4th L), NDC Member and KPA General Political Department Deputy Director VMar Kim Jong Gak (5th L), KWP Secretary and Director of General Affairs Tae Jong Su (6th L) and NDC Member and KWP Secretary of Military Industries Pak To Chun. (Photo: KCNA)

Prior to Kim Jong Un’s inspection the National Defense Commission [NDC] Policy Department held a press conference in Pyongyang.  The Associated Press reports:

On Saturday, a spokesman for North Korea’s National Defense Commission told a news conference that the United States must halt the joint military drills if it is serious about peace on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea calls the U.S.-South Korean war games a threat to peace at a time when U.S. and North Korean officials are holding talks aimed at improving relations.

The U.S. and North Korea announced last week that Washington had agreed to provide 240,000 metric tons of food aid in exchange for a freeze of North Korea’s nuclear activities. A U.S. envoy is scheduled to meet with North Korean officials in Beijing on Wednesday to discuss the distribution of food.

The deal is seen as a first step toward resuming six-nation nuclear disarmament-for-aid talks suspended in 2009, and a tentative move toward improving the tense relationship between the wartime foes. The six-nation talks involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.

“Talks and military exercises are contradictory,” Maj. Gen. Kwak Chol Hui, deputy director of the National Defense Commission’s Policy Department, told the news conference Saturday in response to a question from The Associated Press.

North Korea considers the drills an additional affront because they are being staged during the semiofficial 100-day mourning period following Kim Jong Il’s Dec. 17 death.

Across Pyongyang, vans mounted with speakers drove through the streets Saturday broadcasting the statement denouncing South Korea. State media reported that 1.7 million young North Koreans signed up for military service in a 24-hour period and that hundreds of thousands signed petitions calling for revenge. The figures could not be confirmed independently.

Meanwhile, in another indication of his status in the central leadership, a documentary film on Kim Jong Un’s military inspections and other public activities during January 2012 has been released.

Gen. O Kuk Ryol Steps Forth From the Shadows

Kim Jong Un (L) shakes hands with Gen. O Kuk Ryol on 21 December 2011 (Photo: KCNA)

In the aftermath of Kim Jong Il’s death, Gen. O Kuk Ryol (O Kuk-yo’l) has emerged as a key member of the DPRK leadership.  The 80-year old Korean People’s Army [KPA] General was elected Vice-chairman of the National Defense Commission in February 2009.  Since his promotion to the NDC, Gen. O has been responsible for daily general management of military intelligence and directing policy, planning and implementation of crisis management.  Hours after Kim Jong Il expired Gen. O, along with Kim Kyong Hui and Jang Song Taek and several others, participated in a principals’ meeting.  This meeting began the order of operations which publicized KJI’s demise and taking on KJI’s remaining administrative and command mechanisms.

Pyongyang watchers (including, on occasion, this one) had written Gen. O out of the leadership circles.  Some pointed to the fact that at the 3rd Party Conference Gen. O retained his membership on the Party Central Committee, but was elected to neither the Political Bureau nor Central Military Commission nor was he listed as a party department director.  There were also rumors that as NDC Vice-chairman he experienced difficulty managing the behavior and actions of his subordinates.  In early 2011 another rumor surfaced that officials with personal or patronage links to Gen. O had been purged.  Instead, given his daily responsibilities, Gen. O blended into the woodwork of what DPRK media identifies as “senior officials of party, state, army, security organs and national institutions,” and regularly attended various Pyongyang-based events such as national report meetings and concerts.

Gen. O was likely tapped by KJI to serve as a transitional leading official of the KPA, another eminence grise-cum-guardian for Kim Jong Un.  He has managed DPRK special forces, is former chief of the KPA General Staff and has links to the Guard Command.  Gen. O is technologically savvy and highly respected within the DPRK military.  O Kuk Ryol has been tied to the Kim Family for nearly seven decades.  He was looked after by KJI and Kim Kyong Hui’s mother, Kim Jong Suk (Kim Cho’ng-suk).  O and his family have been loyal supporters to KJI and the Kim Family over the years.

Over the short term Gen. O will likely assist in the daily management of the KPA, supporting (perhaps in the form of counter-signing) orders or instructions issued by Kim Jong Un or Ri Yong Ho, chief of the KPA General Staff.  It is highly likely that during KJI’s visits to China in 2010 and 2011, and his visit to Russia this past August, this power arrangement was tested and tweaked.  The 19 December 2011 order to the KPA to suspend its winter training cycle and return to barracks most likely had Gen. O’s bureaucratic footprints.

Kim Jong Un Ordered Suspension of Military Training After KJI Death

In one of his first acts as central leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong Un ordered the suspension of the Korean People’s Army’s [KPA] annual winter training cycle prior to DPRK media publicizing the death of Kim Jong Il.  After the July 1994 death of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il issued a similar order and many KPA officers and service members remained in barracks.  Yonhap reports:

The North’s state media reported Kim Jong-il’s death Monday, two days after it occurred. The Seoul source said before the passing was announced, Kim Jong-un ordered all military units to halt field exercises and training and return to their bases.

“This is a direct example showing Kim Jong-un’s complete control over the military,” the source said, adding the move also indicated that the younger Kim is poised to become the top commander of the North’s military.

Kim Jong-un became vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party and a four-star general last year, indicating Kim Jong-il’s intentions to make his youngest known son the country’s next leader.

South Korean intelligence officials had previously believed Kim Jong-un had not yet assumed full control over the armed forces in the aftermath of his father’s sudden death.

Officials were only able to confirm that Jong-un’s order two days after he’d issued it. Won Sei-hoon, head of Seoul’s National Intelligence Service, and Kim Kwan-jin, the South’s defense minister, came under fire Tuesday after admitting the service learned of Kim Jong-il’s death from television news coverage.

South Korean officials said they have not observed any unusual activity from north of the border, but that the North has reinforced its security forces at the Joint Security Area near the border.

Reconnaissance Bureau Chief Joins KJI at Field Inspection

Kim Jong Il reacting to the applause of members of KPA Unit #322 at a commemorative photo session. Seen in attendance are his son and successor, Kim Jong Un (C), and Col. Gen. Kim Yong Chol (R) (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)

On 3 November DPRK media reported that Kim Jong Il conducted a field inspection of KPA Unit #322 which contains, among other things, an intelligence training school.  KJI’s visit to Unit 322 was his fifth visit to a KPA unit during a two-week period which began with an 18 October account of a field inspection of KPA Unit #4304.  KCNA reports:

He praised the commanding officers of the unit for rounding off combat preparations in their field as required by the trend of the latest military science and technology and the mode of combat action.

Only when soldiers prepare themselves well to go into action, can they wipe out enemies at a single blow no matter when they come in attack, he noted, adding that all the servicepersons of the KPA should think of combat preparations only awake or asleep, always use their brains, meditate and practice like the servicepersons of the unit.

The socialist country is always invulnerable as it is guarded by such reliable soldiers as servicepersons of the unit who are fully ready to promptly carry out the combat order issued by the party and the country any time, he said.

He met with the heroes of the DPRK who successfully performed their duties during the training. He had a photo session with them.

He visited a sub-unit of the unit.

Pleased to see persimmons trees around the barracks heavily laden with fruits, he said the trees have good tenders and appreciated the servicepersons’ sincerity.

Col. Gen. Kim Yong Chol (R) accompanying KJI to a commemorative photo session during KJI's inspection of KPA Unit #322 (Photo: KCNA)

After his visit to the sub-unit KJI posed for the customary commemorative photograph.  Prominently seen at KJI’s side was Col. Gen. Kim Yong Chol (Kim Yo’ng-ch’o'l), director of the National Defense Commission’s [NDC] Reconnaissance General Bureau [RGB].  One of the key managers of military intelligence collection and operations targeting ROK and member of the Party Central Military Commission [CMC], Col. Gen. Kim was not reported as being in attendance by DPRK media.  KYC has attended other Kim Jong Il visits in 2011 (see below), but on those occasions his presence was reported by name along with other CMC members.

Kim Yo'ng-ch'o'l attends KJI's visit to Taedonggang Fruit Farm and Factory in July 2011 (Photo: KCNA)

[Note to readers: A longer piece/posting on KJI's recent visits to KPA units will be available on this site on Wednesday, 9 November]

Leaflets Floated on KWP Anniversary, Despite KPA Warning

Members from the Seoul-based civic Fighters for A Free North Korea fly a grand photo of Hwang Jang-yop by hanging it from balloons containing anti-Pyongyang leaflets and sending them toward North Korea at Imjingak in the South Korean border city of Paju on Oct. 10, 2011, when the communist nation celebrates the 66th anniversary of the founding of its Workers' Party. Hwang, the architect of North Korea's guiding "juche (self-reliance)" philosophy and a former secretary of the North's ruling Workers' Party, died in South Korea just a year ago after defecting to the South in 1997. The balloons contained 200,000 leaflets criticizing the dictatorial Kim Jong-il regime and Kim's power inheritance to his son Jong-un, 1,000 one-dollar notes and 100 radios. North Korean defectors and South Korean civic activists occasionally fly anti-Pyongyang leaflets despite Pyongyang's repeated retaliation threats. (Yonhap)

Defectors from the DPRK and other ROK-based activists floated 200,000 leaflets on Monday, 10 October, on the anniversary of the foundation of the Korean Workers’ Party.  The activists scattering the leaflets also commemorated the one year anniversary of the death of Hwang Chang-yop, one of the most senior DPRK elites who fled to ROK in 1997 where resided until his 2010 death.  The leaflet launch occurred in spite of a warning on Saturday from the KPA’s representative to inter-Korea military talks:

Public at home and abroad affirmatively appreciate the atmosphere of a series of dialogues created with much effort and hope to see the north-south relations improved and national reconciliation and unity attained on this occasion.

The military warmongers and other puppet conservative forces of south Korea, however, are getting frantic with the moves to escalate the confrontation with the DPRK as evidenced by intrusions into the north side’s waters in the West Sea of Korea and the scattering of leaflets over areas along the front, a blatant challenge to the national aspiration and the demand of the times.

In September alone, more than 80 warships of the South Korean navy intruded into the waters of the north side in the sea while anti-communist rightwing conservative organizations scattered a lot of leaflets and undesirable USBs and pamphlets into areas of the north side.

A particular mention should be made of the fact that anti-communist elements under the Federation of the Movement for Freedom in the North unhesitatingly opened to public their plan to scatter anti-DPRK leaflets from the Rimjin Pavilion on the anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

The reckless actions of the anti-DPRK confrontation elements to slander the headquarters of our revolution and the socialist system have reached an intolerable phase.

One of the activists scattering leaflets into the DPRK, Park Sang-hak, has been targeted by the country for assassination by poison.  The alleged assassin, a 22-year member of the KPA named An (Ahn) who fled to ROK in 1995, planned to spike Park’s drink or utilize a poison dart.  An was initially recruited during a March 2010 business trip by DPRK officials who asked An to target Kim Tok-hong (who arrived in ROK with Hwang Chang-yop in 1997), but was pater switched to Pak.  JoongAng Ilbo reports:

According to prosecutors, An escaped the North in 1995, and ran a kimchi manufacturing factory in China. The business was not successful and then he worked as an executive of a South Korean company doing trade with North Korea from third countries.

In March 2010, An was in Mongolia researching new business opportunities and met a senior official of the North Korean Embassy there. The two met several times and he was introduced to another North Korean official, supposedly named Kim, at the embassy last November.

Kim worked for the North Korean agency handling spying activities overseas. After he learning that An had defected to the South after 22 years of military service in the North, he asked An to kill Kim Deok-hong, who defected with Hwang Jang-yop, former secretary of the Workers’ Party of the North, in 1997. Hwang was the highest ranking North Korean to ever defect.

An returned to the South and reported the assassination order to the NIS. He said he would gather more information for the NIS on additional trips to Mongolia.

The NIS warned him that further trips to Mongolia were dangerous, but An returned in March in fear of losing business opportunities. During that trip, An received additional prods from Kim to kill Kim Deok-hong in South Korea.

“If you succeed in assassinating him, we will let your mother, who is currently living in a controlled district [with limited freedoms], to move to Pyongyang and live a comfortable life,” Kim was quoted as saying by An, prosecutors said. “We will also provide much assistance for your businesses.”

An agreed, and returned to the South with the intention of killing Kim Deok-hong. He couldn’t locate him, however, and the target was changed by his handlers in the North to Park Sang-hak.

An tried to lure Park to see him saying that someone from Japan was willing to help Park spread anti-North leaflets and they could discuss it at a Japanese restaurant in Gangnam.

Photo: KBS World

Meanwhile, ROK is rejecting a DPRK request to repatriate two brothers who arrived south on a small boat on 4 October (Tuesday) via the East Sea (Sea of Japan), after the brothers expressed that they wanted to remain in ROK.  It was the second waterborne defection to occur in the last several weeks.  Also, on 4 October, nine DPRK defectors arrived in Seoul, after spending nearly 3 weeks in Japan.

On 13 September a small DPRK fishing boat carrying six adults and three children was found drifting off the coast of the Noto Peninsula.  The leader of the group told Japanese authorities, “We wish to go to South Korea.”  The group’s leader was a member of the KPA who worked as a fisherman.  A report in Sankei Shimbun speculated that they decided to leave the DPRK because of corruption within the KPA-owned fishing companies.  Security organizations in the DPRK increased the amount of money fishermen are required to pay to fish, and their lives became untenable.  The group’s leader said, “We had to pay a huge amount of money to the military and life became more difficult each year.”

KBS World reports that a DPRK migrant currently incarcerated in China, but who holds ROK citizenship, will be released.  Another migrant with dual citizenship was “paroled” and was expected to travel south.  The two dual citizens are part of a group estimated between 20 and 30 migrants who were arrested in late September.  They are under investigation by Chinese authorities and are being held in a facility near Yanbian.  Last week, a ROK national and DPRK defector were arrested near Shenyang and are also being detained.

DPRK Reiterates Request for Cancelation of Ulchi Freedom Guardian

While Koreans commemorated Liberation Day (15 August), DPRK media outlets have requested the cancelation of the joint US-ROK Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) exercises which are scheduled to begin on 16 August (Tuesday).  An essay in Rodong Sinmun described UFG “extremely provocative northward aggression exercise” and that “the situation on the Korean peninsula is at the crossroads of choice between dialogue and the intensification of confrontation.”  Yonhap reports:

North Korea on Saturday repeated its call for the cancellation of an upcoming South Korea-U.S. military drill, saying Seoul was deliberately trying to ruin the atmosphere of dialogue on the Korean Peninsula “in collusion with outside forces.”

South Korea and the U.S. plan to hold their annual joint military exercises, dubbed Ulchi Freedom Guardian, in the Yellow Sea off the west coast of Korea. The South’s defense ministry said the 11-day drills, which kick off Tuesday, will simulate destroying weapons of mass destruction.

Pyongyang’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said that the drills “prove that those forces do not want to see detente and peace on the Korean Peninsula.”

“The joint military exercises against the North … would further aggravate the already strained situation on the peninsula and increase the danger of a nuclear war,” a bylined article said.

Earlier this week, the North’s military delegation to the border village of Panmunjom told South Korean and U.S. authorities to cancel the planned exercises, accusing the two allies of hampering the atmosphere of dialogue and escalating tension.

South Korean forces have been on high alert in the area since a North Korean artillery attack killed four people, including two Marines, in November on Yeonpyeong Island near the tense sea border.