Updates on North Korea General

 North Korea elevated a little-known general to the rank of vice marshal—the top title of the senior military official ousted Monday—as diplomats and analysts puzzled over the biggest shake-up in the regime since Kim Jong Eun took power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in December.
Military figures in recent years have taken a huge number of positions in the ruling Worker's Party, and when Kim Jong Il died they held more posts than at any previous point in his 17-year reign. But the ouster Monday of Ri Yong Ho, coming after three civilians were put in military positions and two military leaders were removed in April, appears to signal a reversal of that trend, some analysts said.
"I think the tide has turned," said Aidan Foster-Carter, a North Korea watcher at LeedsUniversity in England. "Under Kim Jong Il, possibly because his own military credentials weren't so strong, the military rose significantly. But Kim Jong Eun's arrival has been managed by the political party."
Others cautioned that it is too early to know precisely why Mr. Ri, a longtime confidante of the Kim family, lost his job—though most outsiders doubt the official explanation that he was ill. They note Mr. Ri appeared healthy in recent pictures, frequently at Kim Jong Eun's side.
"It's very difficult to tell," said Moon Chung-in, a Yonsei University political scientist and participant in the inter-Korean summit meetings in 2000 and 2007. "But if there is a confrontation happening between the civilian leaders and the military, that would lead to a major rupture in North Korea."
The North's state news agency, which used a mere four sentences to announce the dismissal of Mr. Ri on Monday, took just two on Tuesday to report the promotion of Hyon Yong Chol, who became one of six vice marshals at the head of the North's military. He wasn't appointed to the political posts that Mr. Ri held.
North Korea's state news agency said nothing else about the leadership change, and on Tuesday continued its routine of heatedly criticizing South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, countries it routinely portrays as scheming to invade it. The agency also reported the departure of the North's Olympic team for London and the efficiency of "new kinds of stone-processing machines" at a Pyongyang factory.
Officials in the U.S. on Monday played down the significance of the shakeup.
South Korea's top official for dealing with the North, Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik, steered clear of the matter, and on Tuesday reissued an invitation to Mr. Kim's government for working-level talks on matters including reunions of separated Korean families.
Japanese officials said they were following developments in the North with interest. China, North Korea's economic benefactor and principal political ally, made no comment.
Zhang Liangui, professor of international strategic research at the Party School of the China Communist Party Central Committee, said North Korea is "very mysterious."
"It's hard for us to understand exactly what they are up to," he added. "But from my understanding, this appears to be political combat."
The ousted Mr. Ri had been a rising star since 2003, when he was put in charge of the military unit guarding the capital city and responsible for the Kim family's personal security. His power grew just as the number of military leaders holding positions in non-military parts of the North Korean regime skyrocketed. Since Kim Jong Il signaled in 2009 that his son Kim Jong Eun would succeed him, many analysts have viewed the political prominence of military officials as evidence the Kim family needed military support for the transition.
Among the people to gain a bigger role in April was Choe Ryong Hae, a general's son who held political jobs until September 2010, when he was named a general—despite never having served in the military—on the same day as Kim Jong Eun. In April, Mr. Choe was elevated to vice marshal and put in charge of political operations in the military.
"Even more directly than Ri's departure, with Choe's appointment, the party is trying to show the military who's boss," Mr. Foster-Carter said.




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