Kim Jong-un gives blessing to ‘playboy’ general’s power grab

He has survived political purges and the executions of his rivals in one of the most brutal and unforgiving regimes in the world. Now Choe Ryong-hae’s star is soaring.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (R) Choe Yong-Hae (L) at an opening ceremony for a new housing development in Pyongyang in 2017. Picture; AFP.

He has survived political purges and the executions of his rivals in one of the most brutal and unforgiving regimes in the world.

Now Kim Jong-un’s right-hand man has established a personal power base within the North Korean government, potentially challenging the exclusive authority of the supreme leader, according to a new report.

Choe Ryong-hae, head of one of the most powerful administrative bodies in the North Korean government, has been steadily increasing his individual influence within the regime, according to research conducted on behalf of the South Korean parliament.

Choe Ryong Hae, centre, and Vice Marshal and the military's General Staff Chief Ri Yong Ho, with Kim Jong-un during a mass military parade in 2012. Picture: AP.

He has done so with Kim’s approval, and there is no evidence that he has ambitions to challenge him. However, by taking personal control of appointments and by elevating his own supporters to key positions, Choe, 75, is concentrating personal power in a way that is rare in North Korea and has, in the past, led to the downfall of those who have wielded it.

The analysis, by the National Assembly Research Service (NARS), offers a rare insight into the inner workings of one of the most opaque and mysterious leadership organisations in the world. “Choe Ryong-hae is supporting Kim Jong-un’s rule as an ‘invisible hand’, refraining from public activities to a great extent,” writes the author, Lee Seung-yeol.

“Paradoxically Choe, who has grown with the authority granted by Kim, is limiting the North Korean leader by eliminating competition and checks and balances among the elite [factions] within the North Korean power structure.”

Choe Ryong-hae (circled in red) accompanies Kim Jong-un (front) during a visit to the newly built Youth Movement Museum in 2016. Picture: AAP.

Choe is the scion of Korean nobility, the son of the late Choe Hyon, a hero of the guerrilla struggle against the Japanese in the Second World War before the Korean peninsula was divided. After a successful career in the Korean Workers’ Party, he was made a general in 2010 by Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, in the last two years of the “Dear Leader’s” life.

Rumour among North Korea watchers has it that Choe is a playboy with extreme and specialised sexual tastes. For all this, he became the chief political officer in the Korean People’s Army in 2012, with an influence exceeding that of superior officers.

He began his career as the protege of the younger Kim’s uncle, Chang Song-thaek, but he fell out and broke with him at an auspicious time. In 2013, Chang was executed for treason, after being vociferously and publicly denounced by the state media. Among other crimes, he was accused of plotting to overthrow Kim, failing to applaud him enthusiastically and causing a monument honouring him to be built “in a shaded corner”.

It was the most spectacular in a series of rolling purges by Kim of those close to him. In 2015, the vice-premier, Choe Yong-gon, was reported to have been shot after opposing Kim’s forestry policies. The same year, the former defence minister, Hyon Yong-chol, was said by the South Korean intelligence to have been cut to pieces with an anti-aircraft gun for crimes including falling asleep in the supreme leader’s presence, although the method of his execution has not been confirmed.

Choe’s son’s marriage to Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo-jong has helped his position. Picture: AFP.

Choe was not immune. In 2015, he was sent to work on a collective farm as part of a “re-education” programme. South Korean spies reported that Kim had turned on him after the collapse of a tunnel at a power station for which Choe had been responsible.

Choe’s son’s marriage to Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo-jong has no doubt helped. In 2017, Choe became head of the Organisation and Guidance Department (OGD), a powerful bureau within the Korean Workers’ Party that had until then always been led by members of the Kim family.

“The director of the OGD holds a core position responsible for executing the sole leadership of the Supreme Leader, referred to as the ‘party within the party’, ” the NARS report said. “He plays the role of the second-in-command within North Korea’s power structure.”

In 2019, Choe was made ceremonial head of state, consolidating his position as the titular head of the regime and the move to a new generation of leaders.

The Times