3 N.Korean bigwigs on same trip

First from left are Hwang Pyong-so, vice chairman of North Korea’s National Defense Commission, Choe Ryong-hae, a veteran military offficial, and Kim Yang-gon, the head of the United Front Department of the North Korean Workers’ Party. / Yonhap

By Yi Whan-woo, Jun Ji-hye

An 11-member delegation that visited from North Korea has drawn particularly attention because three of its members are regarded as some of the most powerful figures in the reclusive nation, following North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.

Hwang Pyong-so, 65, is regarded as Kim Jong-un’s number two. He emerged from obscurity earlier this year to suddenly become an integral part of Pyongyang’s ruling elite.

On Sept. 25, he was promoted to vice chairman of North Korea’s powerful National Defense Commission (NDC) at the second session of the 13th Supreme People’s Assembly, Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament.

Hwang replaced Choe Ryong-hae who had been the regime’s No. 2 man following the execution of Jang Song-thaek, Kim Jong-un’s uncle, in December last year.

Hwang had been director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army, the top political officer of the North Korean military.

According to Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency, he was given this title, along with the rank of vice marshal, on April 28, less than two weeks after he was promoted to the rank of four-star general in the North Korean army.

This was seen as part of efforts by Kim Jong-un to consolidate his power following the execution of Jang.

Choe, 64, a veteran military official, headed the North’s mainstream military faction before Hwang’s rise through the ranks.

However, Choe is still extremely influential, according to North Korean experts here.

He holds a seat as secretary on the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, Pyongyang’s highest decision-making body, and commands preeminent authority over civilian affairs. He is also chairman of the Sports Guidance Commission, a body set up by sports fanatic Kim Jong-un.

Choe was the NDC vice chairman from April 2012 to September.

He jointly served as director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army for two years from April 2012. He became a four-star general on September 2010.

Kim Yang-gon, 72, is regarded as a South Korea expert who has been directing and supervising the North’s inter-Korean policy for a long time.

He is the long-standing head of the United Front Department of the Workers’ Party, tasked with overseeing the activities of sleeper agents operating in South Korea.

When Rep. Park Jie-won of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, who was a chief of staff under late President Kim Dae-jung, visited the reclusive state in August to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the liberal President’s death, it was Kim Yang-gon that delivered a wreath and condolences sent by Kim Jong-un to Park.

He also played a significant role when the two Koreas clinched an inter-Korean summit in 2007 between late President Roh Moo-hyun and the now deceased former leader of the North, Kim Jong-il. At the time, Kim Yang-gon made a secret trip to Seoul, where consensus was reached on the summit agenda with his South Korean counterpart, and he also paid then President Roh Mu-hyun a courtesy call.

In June of last year, the South Korean government requested that Kim come for scheduled inter-Korean ministerial talks to meet with Seoul’s Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae. But the planned talks foundered after Pyongyang refused to comply with that request.