Pyongyang enacts major changes in power structure

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Pyongyang enacts major changes in power structure

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The North Korean government has undergone restructuring over the past year and Kim Kyong-hui, younger sister of the North’s leader Kim Jong-il, is back in power after being out of the public eye for several years, Seoul officials said yesterday.

According to data on the North Korean power structure compiled annually by the Unification Ministry, the ruling Workers’ Party streamlined its organizational chart, reducing the number of departments from 21 to 18.

The Unification Ministry said Kim Kyong-hui has returned to prominence. The younger Kim is serving as the head of the light industries department at the Workers’ Party.

“She has recently been accompanying her brother to field inspections,” a Unification Ministry official told reporters in a background briefing. “She had been out of the public eye since 2003 and this is a major change.”

Kim Kyong-hui is married to Jang Song-thaek, a member of the powerful National Defense Commission and one of the most influential figures in the North.

Another Unification Ministry official said developing light industries is critical to the North’s efforts to revive its economy and also to realize its stated goal to become a strong and prosperous nation by 2012, the centennial of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung’s birth. The official added Kim Kyong-hui’s position as the top light industries official serves as evidence of her return to prominence.

The National Economic Cooperation Federation, which the ministry had earlier said was defunct, is still in existence. The federation deals with inter-Korean economic cooperation. After the North’s cabinet reshuffle in April, the federation was not on the list of ministries and agencies, prompting the Unification Ministry to conclude that it had folded.

But the ministry said it had learned that the Central Special Development Guidance Bureau, which oversees the Kaesong Industrial Complex, and Myongseungji General Development Guidance Bureau, which handles Mount Kumgang tourism, both remain active as subagencies of the federation.

The ministry revealed further changes at the Workers’ Party. Office 35, which handled espionage on South Korea and other parts of the world, and the department of operations were integrated and were moved to the bureau of reconnaissance at the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces.

Offices 38 and 39 were both managing political funds and Kim Jong-il’s personal finances but they merged under the name Office 39.

Earlier this month, intelligence sources here said Kim Tong-un had been sacked as the Office 39 chief after getting slapped with a travel ban by the European Union in January. Office 39 is known to run drug and cigarette factories and also the printing presses that issue counterfeit banknotes.

Also, a committee pushing for abolition of the national security law in South Korea has shut down. In the South, activities regarded as threats to national security, such as dissemination of pro-North Korean messages or traveling to the North without permission, are punishable by law.

“We’ve reached the conclusion that the committee no longer exists after contacting various sources,” the Unification Ministry official said.

“The committee shows no recent activity.”


By Yoo Jee-ho [jeeho@joongang.co.kr]
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