Kim Yong Chun (Kim Yo’ng-ch’un)
updated 11 May 2012
VMar Kim Yong Chun (Kim Yo’ng-ch’un) is Vice Chairman of the National Defense Commission and director of the KWP Civil Defense Department. He is also a member of the KWP Central Committee, its Political Bureau and the Party Central Military Commission. Kim had close social ties to the late DPRK supreme leader Kim Jong Il.
Kim Yong Chun was born in 1936 in Yanggang Province. He attended the Mangyo’ngdae Revolutionary School and Kim Il-so’ng Military University. Kim began his career as member of the KPA’s political corps. Kim was appointed a party secretary on the South P’yo’ngyan KWP Provincial Committee in the early 1960s, and held several command positions in the 1970s.
Kim Yong Chun was elected to candidate membership on the Party Central Committee at the 6th Party Congress in October 1980. In 1986 he was appointed director of the General Staff Department’s Operations Bureau and also elected a deputy to the Supreme People’s Assembly and a full member of the Party Central Committee. However, he was demoted along with then-Chief of the KPA General Staff, Gen. O Kuk Ryol, when a group of KPA generals challenged then defense minister O Jin U, in the late 1980s.
Kim was restored after receiving re-education, and was promoted to General in 1992. He was appointed director of the General Munitions Mobilization Bureau in 1993. In 1994 Kim was appointed command of the VI Army Corps in North Hamgyo’ng Province. Kim was a member of Kim Il-so’ng’s Funeral Committee in July 1994.
Kim Yong-chun (L) attends KJI’s meeting with PRC President Hu Jintao in August 2010 (Photo: Xinhua)
Kim supervised the disbanding of the VI Army Corps in 1995. The VI Corps which had been accused of corruption and treason. He was promoted to Vice Marshal and appointed Chief of the KPA General Staff. He was elected to the National Defense Commission at the 10th Supreme People’s Assembly in September 1998. He was promoted to NDC Vice Chairman in April 2007 and appointed Minister of the People’s Armed Forces in February 2009. In September 2010 Kim Yong Chun was elected a member of the Political Bureau and reappointed membership on the Party Central Military Commission.
In April 2012 Kim was replaced as Minister of the People’s Armed Forces. During the 4th Party Conference he was appointed director of the KWP Civil Defense Department which manages the country’s reserve military training units (Worker-Peasants’ Red Guard; Young Red Guards, etc).
Kim Yong Chun had close social ties to Kim Jong and was part of a small circle of senior KPA officials who attended hunting trips with KJU. He also routinely attended KJI’s banquets and so-called close aide parties, and traveled with him on visits to China and Russia. Kim has has close patronage and social ties to Gen. O Kuk Ryol for four decades, as well as close ties to Jang Song Taek. Despite rumors of fragile health, Kim has appeared vigorous and agile at public events. Kim Yong Chun has a gregarious personality and can be quite blunt. He once discomfited KJI at a party meeting by saying a senior Cabinet official “should be shot dead.”
VMar Kim’s son-in-law, Ri Song Ho, serves as Vice Minister of Commerce. Another of VMar Kim’s daughters is married to a manager of a foreign trading corporation.
Kim Yong Chun
Vice Chairman, National Defense Commission
Minister of the People’s Armed Forces
Member, Party Central Committee (CC KWP)
Member, Party Central Military Committee
1960: Secretary, South Pyongan KWP Provincial Committee
1980: Elected Candidate Member, CC KWP
1986: Director, Operations Bureau, General Staff Department
Deputy, 8th Supreme People’s Assembly
Elected Member of CCKWP
1987: Order of Kim il Sung Award
1990: Deputy, 9th SPA
1992: Promoted, General, KPA
1993: Director, General Logistics Mobilization Bureau, MPAF
1994: Commanding Officer, VI Army Corps
Member of Kim Il Sung Funeral Committee
1995: Member, O Jin U Funeral Committee
Promoted, Vice Marshal, KPA
Chief of the General Staff, MPAF
1998: Deputy, 10th SPA
Elected, Member, National Defense Commission
2007: Elected Vice Chairman of the NDC
2009: Appointed, Minister of People’s Armed Forces
2010: Elected, Member, KWP Political Bureau
Elected, Party Central Military Commission
See also:
Chong, Bong-uk (editor). A Handbook on North Korea (Seoul: Naewoe Press, November 1998) p. 75
Gause, Ken. North Korean Civil-Military Trends: Military First Politics to a Point. (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute USAWC, 2006)
Kim, Kwang-in. ’Revolutionization;’ Euphemism for Banishment” Chosun Ilbo. 7 December 2001
Yonhap News Agency. North Korea Handbook (Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, 2003) pp. 655-6; 858-9
