South Korea: North Korea executes vice premier in latest purge

North Korea has executed its vice premier for education and rebuked two high-ranking officials, South Korea said on Wednesday, which, if true, would mark a new series of measures by leader Kim Jong Un to discipline top aides.

Kim took power in 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, and his consolidation of power has included purges and executions of top officials.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said the government had confirmed the execution of the education official, Kim Yong Jin, “through various channels” but declined to provide details. The execution, by firing squad, apparently took place in July.

Additionally, Kim Yong Chol, the influential head of the North’s United Front Department which handles inter-Korean relations, was made to undergo “revolutionary measures,” Jeong told a briefing. Kim Yong Chol was re-educated at a rural farm for a month until mid-August, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said. Kim Yong Chol, an Army general, headed the North Korean intelligence agency before taking his current position this year.

Another ruling party official in the propaganda department was also reprimanded, Jeong said.

The South’s comments follow a news report on Tuesday that the North had executed two high-ranking officials for disobeying leader Kim Jong Un.

It is difficult to independently verify news about top officials in the North or the inner circle around the leader. Some previous reports of executions and purges in the reclusive state have proven inaccurate.

North Korea rarely announces purges or executions, although state media confirmed the 2012 execution of Kim’s uncle, Jang Song Thaek, widely considered the country’s second most powerful man, for factionalism and crimes damaging to the economy.

[Reuters]

It’s Party time in North Korea

North Korea will hold a congress of its ruling Workers’ Party starting this Friday–the seventh time in the country’s history such an event has been held, but the first time since 1980.

There are two key institutions in North Korea: the military and the Workers’ Party, the communist structure which controls the state. Its symbols are the usual hammer and sickle, but North Korea has added a brush to symbolize learning.

Kim Il Sung, the founding father of North Korea (and its “eternal president” today, 22 years after his death) was very much a Party man, emphasizing the party and North Korea’s special flavor of communism–called “juche,” or self-reliance–above all else. His son and the second in the dynasty, Kim Jong Il, was more of an army man, putting in place the “songun” or “military first” policy. Kim Jong Un has been modeling himself after his grandfather, elevating the party.  So the congress takes place in this context.

What is a congress anyway? In the communist system, a congress is technically the highest ruling body of the Workers’ Party (although in reality, in North Korea, the highest ruling body is Kim Jong Un’s.) It is a forum to trumpet the importance of the party and sometimes to unveil major new policies. In 1982, Deng Xiaoping used the 12th congress of the Chinese Communist Party to put forward the idea of developing “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” while in 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev used the 27th congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to announce his reform and opening policies, perestroika and glasnost.

Whether Kim Jong Un offers more rhetoric or real reforms, well, you’ll just have to wait for Friday for that.

[Washington Post]

Kim Jong-Un to officially cement North Korean Supreme Leader role

North Korea is set to hold a landmark ruling party congress this week that will cement Kim Jong-Un’s status as the country’s Supreme Leader. This comes after four years of reorganising, reshuffling and executions.

The party congress to be held this week will be the first in 40 years, and will officially make Kim Jong-Un the leader of the country. The congress will start on Friday and it follows a 70-day loyalty drive, in which all workers were asked to work harder to express their loyalty to the leader and the Worker’s Party of Korea.

According to reports, North Korean expert at Yonsei University in Seoul, John Delury said, “This congress means everything for Kim Jong-Un. It is the most public, historic setting in which he can demonstrate that he is fully in charge, and that everyone follows his orders. Nominally, it’s for the party, but really this congress is for Kim.”

[Big News Network]

In search of Kim Jong Un’s motive …Survival

North Korea watchers haven’t been getting much sleep this year. With all the bluster of late, what does Kim Jong Un want?

“There are a lot of debates about ‘What North Korea wants,’ ” says Sheena Greitens, a fellow in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies and an assistant professor at the University of Missouri. “First, what matters are the interests of the very top leadership, which is narrower than ‘North Korea’ or even ‘the North Korean government.’ Second, North Korea might use a range of strategies … but we should remember that they’re all aimed at the same underlying, fundamental objective: ensuring Kim’s political survival.”

March is always a time of heightened tensions. This is when the U.S. and South Korea stage their annual joint military exercises, involving hundreds of thousands of troops. This year, the North has been especially demonstrative as it lays the groundwork for a major strategy meeting, its first Workers Party Congress since 1980.

The Chinese Communist Party holds these summits every few years to chart strategy, a common practice of communist states. In North Korea, the party congress framework was dropped under Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, who ruled from 1994 until his death in 2011. Soon to be revived under his son, the congress is expected to roll out the next phase of Kim’s rule.

“The stakes are always higher in the first few years of a dictator’s time in power, and the first few years are almost always more [internally] violent,” Greitens says. “The rules of the game under the new leader are still being established — both inside the country and externally — so it makes uncertainty higher.”

As the third-generation leader of the family dynasty, Kim needs to establish his own legitimacy, and that means standing up to enemies and advancing the nuclear program.

“I don’t think it’s all scientific tests,” Hanham says. “I think a lot of this is political.”

[NPR]

The rise and fall of Jang Song-thaek, son-in-law of the North Korean theocracy – Part 1

In late 2013, Jang Song-thaek, an uncle of Kim Jong-un was taken to the Gang Gun Military Academy in a Pyongyang suburb. Hundreds of officials were gathered there to witness the execution of Mr. Jang’s two trusted deputies in the administrative department of the ruling Workers’ Party. Jang, widely considered the second-most powerful figure in the North, fainted during the ordeal, according to a new book published in South Korea that offers a rare glimpse into the secretive Pyongyang regime.

“Son-in-Law of a Theocracy,” by Ra Jong-yil, a former deputy director of the National Intelligence Service, is a rich biography of Jang Song-thaek, the most prominent victim of the purges his young nephew has conducted since assuming power in 2011.

Mr. Jang was convicted of treason in 2013, and was executed at the same place and in the same way as his deputies, the South Korean intelligence agency said.

The book asserts that although he was a fixture of the North Korean political elite for decades, he dreamed of reforming his country. “With his execution, North Korea lost virtually the only person there who could have helped the country introduce reform and openness,” Mr. Ra said during a recent interview.   Continued