SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has sacked Park Jong-chon, the second most powerful military leader after Kim Jong-un, state media said North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un attends the session of the 6th enlarged meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends the 6th session of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo released by North Korea’s Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 1, 2023. I am attending an expanded conference.
Park, vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party Central Military Commission and secretary of the party’s central committee, was replaced by Ri Yong-gil at the commission’s annual general meeting last week, KCNA’s official news agency said on Sunday. I told you.
No reason was given for the change. Pyongyang regularly renews its leadership, and year-end party conventions were often used to announce personnel changes and major policy decisions. During the meeting, state television showed Park sitting in the front row of the podium and bowing while other members raised their hands to vote on personnel issues. His seat was later shown to be vacant.
He also announced on Monday that the official news agency KCNA of Kim’s New Year’s visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, which houses the remains of his grandfather and father, unlike October, when Park Jong-un accompanied him on a trip to New York. I was also absent from the published photos. Party anniversary castle.
The party’s Central Military Commission, headed by Chairman Kim, sits above the Ministry of Defense and is considered the most powerful military decision-making body in the country.
Park was replaced as Kim called for the development of a new his ICBM and a larger nuclear arsenal to counter the US and South Korea as key to the isolated nation’s defense strategy towards 2023. President Park has rapidly climbed the military ladder from a one-star artillery commander in 2015 to a four-star general in 2020, and takes pride in contributing to the advancement of the country’s short-range missile technology. increase.
In late 2020, Park was promoted to the Politburo and given the title of Marshal, the highest military rank under Kim, and a leader in opposing the South Korea-US joint struggle last November.
Like most other senior military advisers who have had ups and downs under Kim, Park will be promoted again months later after Kim chided some officials for their handling of North Korea’s coronavirus response. Previously, they were temporarily demoted in mid-2021.
While Kim Jong-un mostly praised the military’s progress in weapons development during the talks, Park’s dismissal contrasted with pointing out flaws and calling for improvements in other areas.
Oh Kyung-seop, a fellow at the Institute for Korean Unification in Seoul, said the recent flare-up in inter-Korean tensions over the invasion of North Korean drones into the south may have played a role. . An official in Seoul said South Korea had sent three drones across the border in response to the intrusion, but had received no response from North Korea.
