By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PYONGYANG, North Korea– North Korea’s state media confirmed Thursday the removal of its highest military chief, in yet another step towards effecting a military overhaul. The country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, has replaced nearly half of his country’s top officials in the past two years, according to South Korean officials.

The firing of Gen. Kim Kyok-sik and the rise of Gen. Ri Yong-gil to replace him as head of the general staff of the North’s Korean People’s Army was the latest in a sequence of high-profile reshuffles that Kim Jong-un has engineered to consolidate his grip on the country’s top officials.

Since taking power after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in late 2011, Kim Jong-un has replaced 44 percent of North Korea’s 218 top military, party and government officials, according to the South’s Ministry of Unification . He engineered this and other reshuffles to retire or simply oust the old generals from his father’s regime and promote a new set of aides who owe loyalty directly to him.

The reordering at the top has accelerated since July of last year, when Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho, one of the most powerful men under Kim Jong-un’s father, was suddenly fired as chief of the general staff of the North Korean military. He was replaced by Vice Marshal Hyon Yong-chol. Hyon hardly lasted long, as he was soon demoted and replaced by Gen. Kim Kyok-sik in May.

Gen. Kyok-sik, 74, had been one of the oldest aides of Kim Jong-il still holding a top job even after Kim Jong-un promoted younger generals. South Korean officials believed that General Kyok-sik commanded units responsible for sinking one of South Korea’s warships and bombarding a South Korean border island in 2010, attacks that killed at least 50 South Koreans.

But his name soon disappeared from state media after the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party met in August to discuss personnel matters.

Little is known about Ri Yong-gil, who is in charge of the field operations of the North Korean military as chief of its general staff. He gained the attention of outside analysts when North Korean media reported that he was one of the generals who advised Kim Jong-un this spring when North Korea threatened nuclear strikes against South Korea and the United States.

Analysts believed that General Ri was appointed military chief during the August meeting of the Central Military Commission.

But North Korean media mentioned his new title for the first time on Thursday in dispatches listing those who accompanied Kim Jong-un while visiting a Pyongyang mausoleum where his father and his grandfather lie in rest.

General Ri Yong-gil joins Gen. Jang Jong-nam, who became minister of the armed forces in May, and Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, the military’s top political officer, as Kim Jong-un’s top three military aides.

Among the three, Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, director of the General Political Department of the North Korean People’s Army, is considered the most powerful. He appeared with Kim Jong-un in North Korean media more often than any other member of the elite.

Choe Ryong-hae, a former party secretary, had never served in the army and experts believe his sudden rise in the military ranks under Kim Jong-un is a sign that the supreme leader is allowing the party to reassert its influence over the military.

For more information, please see:

Japan Times– N. Korea confirms army head ousted — 10 October 2013

Global Post– North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sacks hard-line military chief — 10 October 2013

Gulf News– North Korea confirms removal of hawkish army chief Kim Kyok-sik — 10 October 2013

NY Times– North Korean Leader Tightens Grip with Removal of Top General — 10 October 2013

Voice of America– N Korea Replaces Hawkish Army Chief — 10 October 2013