Pyongyang's Never-Ending Purges

Gordon G. Chang

Politics, Asia

There's a reason North Korea is taking even more risks than usual.

CHOE RYONG-HAE, North Korea’s second- or third-ranked figure, did not attend a state funeral in November, and, more significantly, his name did not appear on the list of the event’s organizing committee. Choe’s sin? A water leak at the newly constructed Mount Paektu Hero Youth Power Station.

A South Korean government spokesman said the omission of Choe’s name was unprecedented, but transfers, demotions and executions of senior regime figures—in the top levels of the Korean Workers’ Party and especially the Korean People’s Army—have become all too common under young leader Kim Jong-un, who came to power on the unexpected death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.

Many thought that Choe had been executed. The speculation was only natural. Since Kim Jong-un took over, many senior figures have lost their lives, like Kim Yang-gon, who died in what was portrayed as an early-morning car crash in late December. The death is considered suspicious, as Kim Jong-il often used vehicular accidents to rid himself of unwanted officials.

Politics have become brutish in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service reported sixty-eight senior officials were killed from 2012 to 2014. Last April, a South Korean intelligence assessment indicated the young North Korean leader had ordered the execution of fifteen senior officials so far that year. In addition to those deaths, high-ranking army officers have disappeared.

Disappearances often mean death. “Most of these executions are not public,” says Bruce Bechtol of Angelo State University. “Guys disappear or they end up in a camp where they die.” Some Korea watchers like Bechtol estimate that once junior officials and officers are counted, the total number of deaths could be closer to five hundred.

As it turns out, Choe was sent to a reeducation program at the Kim Il-sung Higher Party School and then either forced to toil on a farm or sent down to work in a mine. It is thought he was brought back to Pyongyang to fill a spot created by Kim Yang-gon’s untimely passing.