NK leader ready to push his agenda

Pyongyang’s recent military reshuffle gives leader Kim Jong-un the stability to implement his own governing style, which has shown hints of balancing security and the economy, analysts said Sunday.

The replacement last week of army chief of staff Ri Yong-ho with Kim’s own man, Hyon Yong-chol, has raised questions over the military’s once-dominant role. Kim named himself to the military’s top post of marshal.

Experts say the regime wants to minimize threats to Kim by placing figures close to him in top military positions, and by giving back military control to the ruling Workers’ Party.

Kim assumed power following the death of his father Kim Jong-il in December.

The senior Kim led the country under a “military-first” policy that prioritized the army even during a massive famine in the 1990s and as the party gathered cobwebs. But he began stacking the party ranks to prepare to hand power to his son.

“Every leader has to pay attention to safety and the problem of who ‘guards the guard.’ If the military’s power grows disproportionally, it is not good,” said Paik Hak-soon, an analyst at the Sejong Institute.

“The strengthened party control means getting back to normalcy in terms of running the country and gives stability to Kim Jong-un.”

In April, Kim tapped Choi Ryong-hae, seen as a political rather than military figure, to head the general political bureau, which safeguards ideological conformity in the military. Other Kim aides hold party posts as well as high military status.

Some analysts have tied Ri to a hard line stance, noting he was military chief of staff amid soaring inter-Korean tension in 2010. John Delury, an assistant professor at Yonsei University, said equally conspicuous was the lack of a link between Ri and a new governing style shown by Kim.

Upon taking power, Kim quickly moved to burnish his military credentials, paying visits to key military sites and, during a speech in April, vowed that the military-first policy would get top priority.

But the regime has signaled it will balance that with economic development, with Kim stressing the need to improve living conditions and reportedly ordering cadres to seek solutions to economic problems. The regime has changed its Constitution to refer to itself as a “nuclear state,” hinting that it feels more secure with its defenses to the point where the economy may get equal billing.

Delury said there seems to be a “frequent discussion of problems” under the new regime and that Kim is implementing a looser style than his father.

Still, the North has shown few signs of relenting on its tough stance against Seoul and Washington or over its nuclear program.
“The hope is that they are less wedded to a rigid military and that instead there is a new flexibility where the security still comes first but that they can be flexible because they have other goals,” the scholar said.

Significant changes are likely to take some time however, as past attempts such as a 2009 currency reform, have crashed and burned.

“There may be a phase of trying things,” Delury said. “If you talk to any expert on the China model (of economic reform), they would tell you that there is no model because it was a long period experimentation and seeing what worked.” <The Korea Times/Kim Young-jin>

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