Is This North Korea's 'Second In Command'?

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks to Choe Ryong-hae (L), director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army (KPA), during a parade to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the signing of a truce in the 1950-1953 Korean War, at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang July 27, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee

A Quiet Party Apparatchik Rises In North Korea, But Perhaps Not For Long -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The man who has most to gain from the apparent decline of Jang Song Thaek, the second-most powerful figure in North Korea, is a party apparatchik who has been around the ruling Kim dynasty for decades but kept out of the limelight until three years ago.

Choe Ryong Hae now appears to be the most influential adviser to Kim Jong Un, the mercurial 30-year-old who heads the secretive nuclear-armed nation. That had been Jang's role, but South Korea's spy agency said on Tuesday that he had been removed from his official posts.

That fate could soon befall Choe as well, as Kim surrounds himself with more aides of his generation, according to analysts and defectors from the regime, often the only source of information for palace intrigue in Pyongyang.

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My Comment: Choe Ryong Hae is one of the last of the "old guard". And while it appears that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is putting people of his generation into power .... he still needs an old timer to not only satisfy many of the "old timers" who still have positions of power in North Korea, but to also placate his Chinese allies who probably need to feel comfortable that one of their generation is still in a position of influence in the North Korean government.