{"id":21948,"date":"2012-07-18T11:12:03","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T08:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=21948"},"modified":"2012-07-18T11:18:42","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T08:18:42","slug":"north-korean-young-leader-kim-jong-un-cements-control-over-army-21948","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/north-korean-young-leader-kim-jong-un-cements-control-over-army-21948\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korean young leader Kim Jong-un cements control over army"},"content":{"rendered":"

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was named marshal of the army, the country’s top military rank, in a move that adds to his glittering array of titles and cements his power in the isolated and impoverished state that has a 1.2 million strong military.<\/h1>\n

The new title completes Kim Jong-un’s elevation following the death of his father Kim Jong-il in December. He already heads the Workers’ Party of Korea and is First Chairman of the National Defence Commission.<\/p>\n

Kim — believed to be in his late 20s — has steadily worked to impose his own stamp on the top leadership of North Korea, and on Sunday ousted Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho, the country’s leading military figure, who was seen as close to Kim Jong-il.<\/p>\n

Key to Kim’s rule is a lineage that stretches back to his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, who founded the North Korea and is still revered as its eternal president.<\/p>\n

“The personality cult surrounding Kim family has been really shifted to Kim Jong-un,” said Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group, who visited North Korea earlier this month and spoke to reporters in the South Korean capital on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The North suffered a famine in the 1990s, when Kim Jong-un’s father ruled, and its economy was devastated by the collapse of the Soviet Union, a major backer. It has been almost completely isolated by international sanctions over its nuclear and missile programmes.<\/p>\n

Kim Jong-un’s brief term in office since his father’s death is, at least on the surface, a sharp change from the former leader’s dour rule which took North Korea deeper into isolation, abject poverty and large-scale political repression.<\/p>\n

Once the official mourning period was over, the youngest Kim to rule North Korea was seen laughing with fusty old generals, gesticulating in delight at a military parade and, the biggest shock of all, speaking in public. Most North Koreans went to their graves never having heard Kim the elder speak.<\/p>\n

Both Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung were named Generalissimos of the North Korean army, one of the world’s largest.<\/p>\n

Ri’s removal was widely seen as a purge and was followed by the promotion of relatively unknown military man Hyon Yong-chol to the rank of vice marshal.<\/p>\n

Experts says the latest moves have more to do with a shifting of the guards surrounding the young leader than any fundamental changes in policy.<\/p>\nError, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 13)<\/span>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was named marshal of the army, the country’s top military rank, in a move that adds to his glittering array of titles and cements his power in the isolated and impoverished state that has a 1.2 million strong military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,63,1,118,14],"tags":[77157,19845,2729,2071,28541,28542,6047],"class_list":["post-21948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-general","category-hot","category-world","tag-asia","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-korea","tag-north-korea","tag-north-korean-army","tag-north-korean-generals","tag-south-korea-north-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}