Impoverished North Korea is gearing up to experiment with agricultural and economic reforms after its leader Kim Jong-un and his powerful uncle purged the country’s top general for opposing change, a source with ties to Pyongyang and Beijing said.
The source added that the North Korean Cabinet had created a special bureau to take control of the decaying economy from the military — one of the world’s largest — which under Kim Jong-un’s father and former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was given pride of place in running the country.
The downfall of North Korean Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho and his allies gives the untested new leader and his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, who married into the Kim family dynasty and is widely seen as the real power behind the throne, the mandate to try to save the battered economy and prevent the secretive regime’s collapse.
The source has correctly predicted events in the past, including North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006 days before it was conducted, as well as the ascension of Jang.
The changes could herald the most significant reforms made by the North in decades. Previous attempts at a more market-driven economy have floundered, the most recent being a drastic currency revaluation in late 2009 which triggered outrage and is widely believed to have resulted in the execution of its chief proponent.
“Ri Yong-ho was the most ardent supporter of Kim Jong-il’s ‘military first’ policy,” the source said, referring the country’s former leader plunging the North deeper into isolation over its nuclear ambitions, abject poverty and political repression.
The biggest problem was that Kim Jong-il opposed the government taking over control of the economy from the military, the source said, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions.
North Korea’s state news agency KCNA had cited illness for the surprise decision to relieve Ri of all his posts, including the powerful role of vice chairman of the ruling party’s Central Military Commission, though in recent video footage he had appeared in good health.
Ri was very close to Kim Jong-il and had been a leading figure in the military. Ri’s father fought against the Japanese alongside Kim Jong-il’s late father, Kim Il-sung, who founded North Korea and is still revered as its eternal president.
The revelation by the source was an indication of a power struggle in the secretive state in which Kim Jong-un and Jang appear to have further consolidated political and military power.
Kim Jong-un was named Marshal of the Republic this week in a move that adds to his glittering array of titles and cements his position following the death of his father in December last year. He already heads the Workers’ Party of Korea and is first chairman of the National Defense Commission.
The North Korean embassy in Beijing, reached by telephone, declined to comment.
North Korea’s Cabinet has created a “political bureau” which will wrest power from the 1.2 million-strong military to run the economy, which has been in a shambles after a crippling famine in the 1990s, the source said.
“In the past, the Cabinet was empty with no say in the economy. The military controlled the economy, but that will now change,” the source said.
Kim Jong-un has set up an “economic reform group” in the ruling Workers’ Party to look at agricultural and economic reforms, the source said, adding that North Korea would learn from its giant neighbor and solitary benefactor, China.
Leaders in Beijing are thought to have been pressing Pyongyang to do more to reform the economy, worried that a collapse of the North could send refugees streaming across its border, and the loss of a strategic buffer to South Korea and the large contingent of US troops which help protect it.
It was unclear who will head the Cabinet’s “political bureau” and the party’s “economic reform group,” but change was inevitable, the source said.
In sharp contrast to the austere, reclusive image of his father, state media has shown Kim Jong-un visiting fun fairs, speaking in public and applauding at a rock concert at the weekend.
Women appear to have been granted more freedoms, including wearing short skirts, although 200,000 people remain in prison camps in the impoverished and isolated country.
The source dismissed speculation of any political fallout from the purge, saying: “Kim Jong-un and Jang Song-thaek are in control of the military.”
Jang has long been seen as a proponent of reform of an economy which through mismanagement has entirely missed out on the fruits of dramatic growth of neighbors such as China and South Korea.
His push for reform was widely seen as having triggered a period of exile, but he was later rehabilitated and given the primary role of supporting Kim Jong-il’s son when he was being groomed to eventually take over the leadership.
North Korea has yet to name Ri’s replacement as head of the army, the source said.
It was unclear how many of Ri’s men have been sacked, but the source said they have not been jailed.
An assessment of the changes by the South Korean government seen by foreign media said that about 20 top officials had been purged since Kim Jong-un began his ascent to power.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in