Gen. Yun Jong Rin (Yun Chong-rin)

General Yun Jong Rin (Yun Cho’ng-rin) is commanding officer and director of the Guard Command, which is responsible for personal security of Kim Jong Un and core DPRK elites.  Yun directs and manages the most powerful and technologically advanced of all of the country’s security services or military branches.  He is a member of the Party Central Committee (CC KWP) and the Party Central Military Commission.

Yun served as close protection escort (bodyguard) to the DPRK’s late leader Kim Jong Il and held various command positions in the bodyguard corps.  When the Guard Command was created as it own security service in the 1990s, Yun was appointed Chief of Staff.  He  was promoted to Colonel General in 1995.  He was viewed as “a rising star” when he replaced Mar Ri Ul Sol (Yi U’l-so’l) as director of the Guard Command in 2003 following Ri’s retirement.  Yun is a protege of the late VMar Jang Song U (Chang So’ng-u) when Jang ran the Guard Command’s daily operations at its political director with Yun serving as Chief of Staff.

Yun was promoted to General on 22 April 2010, one of only two promotions Kim Jong Il issued on Army Day.  He was elected to membership in the CC KWP and the Central Military Commission in September 2010