May 13, 2013
North Korea Names Armed Forces Minister

By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has removed a hard-line general from the post of armed forces minister, filling the job with a little-known three-star general, according to official North Korean news reports on Monday.

Since Kim Jong-un took over the leadership in Pyongyang in late 2011, there has been a continued reordering of top jobs in the ruling Workers’ Party and the military. Mr. Kim is using the personnel changes to tighten his grip on power, analysts said.

The new minister, Jang Jong-nam, is in his 50s, which is considered young among senior personnel in North Korea, officials in Seoul said. They said that Mr. Jang, the third official to take the role of armed services minister since Mr. Kim came to power, appeared to be part of a new generation the North Korean leader was promoting to put his stamp on the military.

At a military rally in Pyongyang in December, Mr. Jang, then commander of the First Corps, which guarded the eastern border with South Korea, pledged allegiance to Mr. Kim and vowed to turn South Korea into “death valleys” if given the order to attack.

Little else is known about Mr. Jang. Mention of his new role was buried in state news media dispatches listing those who attended an art performance with Mr. Kim.

It was unclear what happened to the departing armed forces minister, Gen. Kim Kyok-sik. South Korean officials believed that he commanded units responsible for sinking one of South Korea’s warships and shelling a South Korean border island, attacks that killed 50 South Koreans.

General Kim, 74, was one of the oldest military leaders in North Korea after Mr. Kim filled top military jobs with younger generals. He was referred to as the armed forces minister in the North Korean news media as recently as May 4.

In North Korea, the armed forces minister is not the top defense job. In the shifting party hierarchy, other military jobs, like the head of the general staff of the Korean People’s Army and the head of the military’s General Political Department, often come before the armed services minister. Like his late father, Kim Jong-il, Mr. Kim has been trying to portray himself as a strong military leader. After its third nuclear test in February, North Korea drastically escalated its hostile political speech against the United States and South Korea.

On Monday, the United States and South Korea started a two-day joint naval exercise involving a nuclear-powered American aircraft carrier. North Korea has criticized the carrier’s arrival in South Korea, calling the drill a preparation for an invasion of the North.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/w...r.html?ref=asia

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