By Jung Min-kyung
North Korea’s recent large-scale personnel reshuffle appears to be an effort to deal with and navigate the current situation, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said.
“Kim Jong-un is taking the current situation seriously and the personnel reshuffle is a way to overcome that,” it said in a report released Sunday.The personnel changes were announced Sunday, shortly after a meeting of Pyongyang’s Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party. At the meeting, Kim Jong-un reportedly called the nation’s nuclear weapons a “powerful deterrent,” which guarantees his regime’s sovereignty and is a measure to counter the US’ “protracted nuclear threats.”
The ministry report explained that the promotion of key officials including North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho is a move to show the reclusive regime’s will to break through its diplomatic isolation in the international community on the back of its own diplomatic and economic figures. Ri will serve as a full vote-carrying member of the politburo, the top decision-making body of North Korea headed by its current strongman.
Experts here highlight that the timing of the meeting came amid the international society’s tightening sanctions against the North following its sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3. The experiment triggered the United Nations Security Council to impose a ban on North Korea’s lucrative textile exports and a chain reaction among the international community to cut off diplomatic and economic ties with the rogue regime.
“The reason why North Korea suddenly hosted the meeting is because it felt threatened by the international community’s unprecedentedly tough sanctions, following its sixth nuclear experiment in September,” said Chung Sung-jang, director of unification strategy studies at the Sejong Institute.
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