김정은 위원장 집권 이후 군부 위상 변화 연구

Abstract

After Kim Jeong Il's death, Kim Jong-Un was given top supreme commander of the North Korean military among party, political and military. He quickly took over his top military position to prevent confusion amid the succession of Political Power. Moreover, doubts about whether the 20-something leader can take control of military commanders in their 70s and 80s were a process that the international community viewed with interest and concern. Despite such concerns, Kim Jong-Un took a turn toward restoring the party's authority over the military and went out of control in the long and short term. As a first step, he established control over the general staff of the armed forces by removing Lee Young-ho, the chief of the General Staff, and then solidified control over the Ministry of People's Armed Forces, an outward-looking military representative organization, by replacing the head of the army on a yearly basis. He finally carried out inspections of the Nation Security Department and the General Political Bureau, even the Guards Command from the end of 2017. Finally he can consolidate the socialist Party-centered system in which state affairs were run by the Korean Worker's Party. Now, North Korea's military appears to have complied with Kim Jong-Un's rule, and its regular military commanders have shown a commitment to Kim Jong-Un's loyalty to him, despite his reduced importance compared to the Strategic Forces in charge of nuclear weapons and missiles. Accordingly, no matter where the North Korea-U.S. relations improvement and tension-reducing measures between the South and the North, which Kim Jong-Un has been pushing for since 2018, the North Korean military is expected to comply with Kim Jong-Un's decision and orders. Therefore, it is expected that the North Korean military will remain faithful to the military's original education training and will continue to be mobilized for the construction of national facilities to cope with the worsening economic difficulties in the wake of the North Korean Sanctions.