 |
| ▲ This file photo of North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang-chol was published by the Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 18, 2024. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap) |
 |
| ▲ This image, captured from North Korea's state-run Korean Central Television, shows the new Public Security Minister Pang Tu-sop in the red circle. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap) |
N Korea-organizations
N. Korea presumed to disband all organizations dealing with inter-Korean issues: Seoul
By Park Boram
SEOUL, Dec. 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is presumed to have disbanded all of its roughly 10 official organizations responsible for addressing inter-Korean issues, following leader Kim Jong-un's order last year to codify South Korea as its primary foe, a unification ministry official said Tuesday.
The official disclosed the assessment as the ministry published the latest editions of its annually published directories of North Korea's key government and party cadres.
Of the 11 North Korean organizations listed as responsible for inter-Korean relations in the 2023 editions, all were either deleted or marked as "presumably disbanded" in the 2024 versions, including the National Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a state agency that previously handled talks with the South.
They also include the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea, the National Reconciliation Council and five other agencies responsible for inter-Korean issues, which North Korea previously announced as abolished through news reports.
"Including the eight agencies that the North said it had disbanded, around 10 organizations dealing with relations with the South are presumed to have been abolished," the ministry official noted.
North Korea appears to have undergone an organizational revamp after Kim, during a year-end plenary party meeting in December last year, defined inter-Korean relations as those between "two states hostile to each other" and ordered agencies handling inter-Korean issues to be discarded.
Under the move, the United Front Department, a key party organ in charge of affairs with South Korea, was also renamed the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee Bureau 10.
"With the renaming, some of its functions appear to have been transferred to the foreign ministry, although the organization's status seems largely unchanged, as shown by the protocol and treatment accorded to (its leadership, such as) adviser Kim Yong-chol and the head, Ri Son-gwon," the official stated.
The official also assessed that Defense Minister No Kwang-chol, who assumed office earlier in October, and the new Public Security Minister Pang Tu-sop might have been elected as full and preliminary members of the party's Politburo, respectively.
(END)
(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved
