Tsutomu Nishioka, a member of the Planning Committee at the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals and Visiting Professor at Reitaku University, recently wrote that on October 7, 2017, just before the anniversary of the Korea Workers’ Party (KWP), a KWP Central Committee meeting made some senior official appointments. He quoted the the state-run Korean Central News Agency as reporting that “[KWP Chairman Kim Jong-un] stressed the need to continue thoroughly implementing the Party's line of simultaneously developing the two fronts [of the economic construction and the building of nuclear force] so as to successfully accomplish the great historic cause of building the state nuclear force.” The remark was the declaration of Kim’s determination to continue nuclear and missile development and indicated that he has yet to “accomplish” the development. There were also some senior KWP appointments: the promotion of Kim Jong-un’s younger sister Kim Yo-jong to a Politburo candidate member. Prof Tsutomu Nishioka felt, however, that attention should be paid to the appointment of Cho Yon-jun, First Deputy Director of KWP Central Organizations and Guidance Department, as Chairman of the KWP Central Control Committee. The Central Control Committee is an organization authorized to monitor not only party, government, military and security officials but also ordinary citizens. It can execute or imprison anybody as a political criminal. Cho Yon-jun is an old KWP cadre aged 80. He is said to have played a key role in the execution of Kim Jong-un’s uncle Jang Song-thaek and has been viewed as having power over the Kim Jong-un regime behind the scene. After serving long as a close aide to Kim Jong-un’s father Kim Jong-il and Deputy Director of the Organizations and Guidance Department, he became First Deputy Director and a Politburo candidate member under the Kim Jong-un regime. The Kim Jong-un regime was initially supported by three pillars – (1) related senior party officials including Jang Song-thaek and his wife Kim Kyong-hui, (2) State Security Minister Kim Won-hong who was dubbed a messenger from beyond the grave as he led the purge of KWP cadres, and (3) the KWP Organization and Guidance Department that supported the Kim Jong-il regime behind closed doors. Since Kim Jong-un inherited the three pillars from his father, he had to replace them all to complete his own dictatorship. At present, the unexperienced Ms. Kim Yo-jong is Kim Jong-un’s one and only relative who supports him. Kim Won-hong has been fired, losing his power struggle with the Organization and Guidance Department. As a result, Kim Jong-un is now supported mostly by old cadres of the Organization and Guidance Department.. Cho Yon-jun’s assumption of the chair of the Central Control Committee can be interpreted as reflecting Kim Jong-un’s sense of crisis.
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