North shakes up leadership of army ground forces

North Korea appears to have reshuffled the leadership of the Korean People's Army's Ground Corps since April last year, according to analysis of the military parade held in Pyongyang last week.

Kim Song-chol, a colonel general in the North's Korean People's Army, appeared at the head of the I Ground Corps' procession at the Feb. 8 military parade in Pyongyang in footage broadcast by state-controlled Korean Central Television. [YONHAP]

North Korea appears to have reshuffled the leadership of the Korean People's Army's Ground Corps since April last year, according to analysis of the military parade held in Pyongyang last week.

Comparisons between broadcast footage of the military parade held on Feb. 8 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the regime’s military, and the one held on April 25 last year, show that the commanders of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) I, V and IX Ground Corps have been replaced.

While the commanders leading the I, V and IX Ground Corps at last year’s parade were Pak Su-il, Choe Kil-ryong and Song Yong-gon, they were replaced by Kim Song-chol, Choe Du-yong and An Yong-hwan at the parade held earlier this month.

Kim and Choe Du-yong are both colonel generals, while An is a lieutenant general.

Although Pak was appointed social security minister in June, his successor in the post of commander of the I Ground Corps was not revealed at the time. Pak was also named the chief of the KPA General Staff Department — Pyongyang’s equivalent of Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff — according to a state media report in January.

Choe Du-yong was one of many military officers promoted en masse on April 14 last year, just before celebrations marking the 110th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the regime’s founder and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.

Prior to his promotion, Choe was commander of the KPA’s II Ground Corps.

His official appointments after his promotion remain unclear, but an unnamed South Korean government official told reporters that he was likely named vice chief of the General Staff Department and head of the department’s Operations Bureau after he was seen standing next to Kwon Yong-jin, head of the KPA’s General Political Department.

It remains unclear what assignments have been given to Choe Kil-ryong and Song Yong-gon since they were seemingly replaced as commanders of the V and IX Ground Corps.

According to a guide to the North Korean military issued by Seoul’s Unification Ministry, the General Staff Department’s land-based forces include nine regular ground corps as well as the Pyongyang Defense Command, the Artillery Command, Mechanized Command and Tank Command.

Although the North once counted eleven regular ground corps, the VI Corps was dismantled in the mid-to-late 1990s after its leaders plotted a coup against the regime’s leadership, according to South Korean and U.S. intelligence officials, while the XI Corps now serves as the core of the regime’s special forces.

In an interview with Yonhap, Hong Min, director of the North Korea Research Division at the Korea Institute of National Unification, said the limited scale of the ground corps leadership reshuffle likely did not indicate a purge by leader Kim Jong-un.

“If the North replaced the commanders of only three ground corps in the last ten months, we should see this as more of a regular change of personnel,” he said.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]