{"id":6772,"date":"2010-06-07T17:27:49","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T14:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=6772"},"modified":"2010-06-07T17:28:17","modified_gmt":"2010-06-07T14:28:17","slug":"north-korea-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/north-korea-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea in leadership reshuffle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"North<\/a>North Korea has reshuffled its top leadership at a rare second session of its parliament, state media says.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top leader Kim Jong-il attended the session, KCNA news agency said, after missing the previous one on 9 April.<\/p>\n

Choe Yong-rim replaced Kim Yong-il as premier – the official responsible for the communist state’s economic policy.<\/p>\n

State media also said that Mr Kim’s brother-in-law, Chang Song-taek, was promoted to a powerful military post on the National Defence Commission.<\/p>\n

Mr Chang is thought to be a backer of a hereditary succession involving Mr Kim’s youngest son, Kim Jong-un.<\/p>\n

Succession hint?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 687-member parliament – known as the Supreme People’s Assembly – usually meets just once a year.<\/p>\n

The special session of parliament, announced on 18 May, was called to discuss “organisational matters”, KCNA said.<\/p>\n

Choe Yong-rim, the Pyongyang party chief, was reportedly proposed as premier by the political bureau of the party’s Central Committee.<\/p>\n

Some reports linked the replacement of the premier to last year’s failed currency revaluation.<\/p>\n

Mr Chang’s promotion came “at the proposal of Kim Jong-il”, the agency said.<\/p>\n

The NDC is North Korea’s highest military body and Mr Chang – already a member – now becomes a vice-chairman.<\/p>\n

Mr Chang has been described as one of Mr Kim’s most trusted allies. Some reports said he had overseen affairs while Mr Kim was incapacitated after a stroke in 2008.<\/p>\n

His promotion will be seen by some as a sign that Mr Kim is putting key personnel in place to ensure a smooth transition of power to his son.<\/p>\n

Three ministers – of light industry, foodstuffs and physical culture – were replaced, and six new vice-premiers appointed.<\/p>\n

The reshuffle comes with inter-Korean ties in tatters, following the sinking of a South Korean warship.<\/p>\n

Forty-six sailors were killed when the Cheonan went down on 26 March near the disputed inter-Korean border.<\/p>\n

International investigators say a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine sank the ship – something Pyongyang rejects.<\/p>\n

It has called Seoul’s decision to refer the issue to the UN Security Council “intolerable”.<\/p>\n

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

North Korea in leadership reshuffle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,80,63,118,101],"tags":[9247,2071,9244,7432],"class_list":["post-6772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-hot","category-politics","tag-choe-yong-rim","tag-north-korea","tag-north-korean","tag-un-security-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6772","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}