Page 1 of
2 AN ATOL
INVESTIGATION All of Kim Jong-eun's
men By Nate Thayer
WASHINGTON - The top managers of North
Korea's clandestine nuclear and ballistic missile
program have been methodically promoted and now
dominate the inner circle of Kim Jong-eun's new
government, confidential foreign government
documents and official media reports from
Pyongyang show.
The shadowy group of power
brokers in the world's most secretive nation
emerged in the first military promotions
prominently unveiled during recent high-profile
ceremonies as the official mourning period for the
death of former dictator Kim Jong-il concluded
last week.
These same senior officials are
known to be behind Pyongyang's missile test launch
- scheduled for the middle of April - which has
rattled regional nerves and sabotaged a
short-lived agreement with
Washington designed to
slow North Korea's steady march towards a nuclear
weaponized state. The United Nations and United
States have charged the "earth observation
satellite" launch is a thinly disguised cover for
testing capabilities for a nuclear armed
long-range ballistic missile.
At least 10
senior North Korean officials, now prominent at
the core of power behind 29-year-old hereditary
successor Kim Jong-eun, have been named by several
foreign intelligence services as in charge of
Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile
development and export program, including
enrichment of uranium to weapons grade strength.
They have also been implicated in selling
nuclear and missile technology to Iran and Syria,
dispatching special operation teams to attack
South Korea and assassinate political opponents,
coordinating an international criminal network
involved in drug trafficking, counterfeit money
laundering, and establishing front companies and
banks to raise more than a billion US dollars per
year to bankroll the privileged lifestyles of the
regime's elite.
The 10 are among North
Korean officials and government agencies named by
at least 31 governments as part of a network that
has imported, sold and developed components and
technology for weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
They have had their assets frozen, been banned
from travel outside of North Korea and forbidden
from engaging in business with the countries'
nationals or companies, according to official
documents.
In the first leadership
reshuffle following Kim Jong-il's death and in one
of his first public acts as the Korean People's
Army Supreme Commander, Kim Jong-eun promoted four
key officials to the rank of general at ceremonies
marking his deceased father's 70th birthday on
February 15.
Pak To-chun, Ju Kyu-chang and
Paek Se-bong, previously seen only in civilian
dress, were never known to have military rank
before being made senior generals. Pyongyang's top
spy, Kim Yong-chol, was also recently promoted to
four-star general rank. In January, another key
powerbroker, Kim Jong-eun's uncle Jang Song-thaek,
who appeared for the first time in military
uniform at the December funeral ceremonies for Kim
Jong-il, was appointed to the rank of four-star
general.
All five men are named by the
United Nations, the US, the European Union (EU)
and other government documents as key managers of
Pyongyang's illicit ballistic and nuclear
development and export programs.
Nuclear aides Ju Kyu-chang has
been at the center of Pyongyang's clandestine
nuclear and missile development policies for more
than two decades. He "oversees the development of
North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear
programs", according to a December 19, 2011 EU
document listing North Korean officials designated
on its sanction list.
Ju Kyu-chang is also
director of the Korean Workers' Party (KWP)
Machine-Building Industry Department, former head
of the KWP Second Economic Committee and past head
of the National Academy of Natural Sciences. All
three government agencies are named by US, UN, EU
and other governments as deeply involved in covert
nuclear and ballistic missile production, research
and export.
According to a May 2010
confidential report to the United Nations Security
Council, "Ju served as the overall supervisor for
North Korea's missile development, including
oversight of the April 5, 2009 Taepo Dong-2 (TD-2)
missile launch and the failed July 2006 TD-2
launch."
Those two missile launches were
the predecessors to the upcoming launch this month
of an "earth observation satellite". Both
ballistic missile launches immediately preceded
Pyongyang's two underground nuclear explosions.
Daniel Pinkston, an analyst with the
International Crisis Group (ICG), said Ju
Kyu-chang has "technical expertise regarding the
SLV [space launch vehicle] and satellite programs
and the nuclear weapons program". In its June 2009
report "North Korea's nuclear and missile
programs", ICG said Ju Kyu-chang "is believed to
be in charge of an independent entity with custody
of North Korea's nuclear bombs" and "was in charge
of the August 1998 attempted satellite launch and
the 2009 launch".
"I would equate Ju with
General Leslie Groves, who headed the US Manhattan
Project that produced atomic bombs during World
War II," said Larry Niksch, a senior associate
with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and
International Studies and former Asian affairs
specialist for 43 years with the non-partisan
Congressional Research Service. "Ju runs the
day-to-day programs to develop missiles and
probably nuclear weapons," he said in an e-mail
this week.
Niksch wrote that Pyongyang
reacted to international sanctions by "fashioning
an alternative based on illicit programs:
counterfeiting of US currency and products,
narcotics smuggling, and selling missiles and
other weapons to other 'rogue' nations like Syria,
Pakistan, and Iran, and terrorist groups like
Hezbollah ... I estimate that North Korean
earnings from various forms of collaboration with
Iran earns Pyongyang upwards of $2 billion
annually. Kim Jong-il distributed much of these
earnings to his military and communist elite to
keep them satisfied and loyal."
Paek
Se-bong is chairman of the government's Second
Economic Committee (SEC). A classified May 2010 UN
"Report to the Security Council from the Panel of
Experts" said, "It is broadly believed that the
Second Economic Committee of the National Defense
Commission plays the largest and most prominent
role in nuclear, other WMD and missile-related
development programs as well as in arranging and
conducting arms-related exports."
According to 2010 US government documents
"The US has reason to believe ... [the Second
Economic Committee] has been used for North
Korea-Iran proliferation-related transactions." A
2009 UN report to the Security Council said the
SEC "is a national-level organization responsible
for research and development of North Korea's
advanced weapons systems, including missiles and
probably nuclear weapons". The same UN report
said, "Paek is the chief operating officer of the
DPRK's [Democratic People's Republic of Korea's]
military industry, the country's largest employer
and economic consumer."
Paek Se-bong
personifies the mysterious grouping of figures in
charge of North Korea's illicit weapons program.
Very little biographical data exists on Paek
Se-bong, who emerged from obscurity in 2003 when
he was appointed to head the SEC and made a member
of the National Defense Commission (NDC), the
supreme ruling body of the DPRK.
After
2003, Paek Se-bong did not appear for eight years
in official North Korean media until April 9, 2009
- four days after the highly publicized launch of
the last North Korean "satellite". He was at that
time reappointed publicly to his position as head
of the SEC and a member of the NDC.
That
long-range rocket test scuttled ongoing talks over
its nuclear program and was followed weeks later
by an underground explosion testing a nuclear
bomb, which resulted in harsh UN sanctions. It was
shortly thereafter that Paek Se-bong's name was
placed on international sanction lists.
His name translates to the "Three peaks of
Mt Paektu", a term used in official propaganda to
refer to Kim Jong-il and his parents. (It is
purported to be the mythical birthplace of Kim
Jong-il, but he is known to have been born in a
village in Siberia where his parents were in exile
during World War II.)
Illicit
exports Pak To-chun was placed under
international sanction on December 19, 2011, the
same day Kim Jong-il's death was announced.
According to the EU, "He is in charge of the arms
industry. It is reported that he commands the
office for nuclear energy. This institution is
decisive for [North Korea's] nuclear and rocket
launcher program."
An
image of a national report meeting held on
February 15, 2012, highlighted are Pak To-chun
(2nd row, left), Ju Kyu-chang (2nd row, 2nd left)
and Kim Yong-chol (3rd row, right), all of whom
were given military promotions on the occasion of
Kim Jong-il's recent birthday celebration. (Photo:
KBS screen grab)
Pak To-chun, also a member of the powerful
NDC, is director of the Military Arms Production
Department. According to the May 2010 UN report to
the Security Council: "The Military Arms
Production Department of the Korea Workers' Party
oversees the matters related to the Yongbyon
nuclear plant and its nuclear weapons programs."
He succeeded Jon Pyong-ho as head of North
Korea's military industries in 2010. Jon Pyong-ho
was the primary manager since the 1980s of North
Korea's clandestine international network tasked
with covertly acquiring components and technology
to build a nuclear bomb. He was in charge of
trading ballistic missile and nuclear technology
with Pakistan's Abdul Qadeer Khan network to build
Pyongyang's nuclear and other weapons arsenal.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
