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Kim Jong Un Amasses Even More Power in Leadership Shuffle

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un consolidated power even further with a leadership shuffle announced Friday.

Kim Jong Un Amasses Even More Power in Leadership Shuffle
Televisions being sold at an Onoden Co. electronics store display footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Photographer: Keith Bedford/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un consolidated power even further with a leadership shuffle announced Friday, installing loyal aides in senior posts and granting new legitimacy to officials involved in nuclear negotiations with the U.S.

The appointments were made during a meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly, North Korea’s rubber-stamp legislature, and announced by state media. Of particular importance, according to analysts, was the decision to appoint Choe Ryong Hae as the nominal head of state with the formal title of president of the assembly’s presidium.

Kim Jong Un Amasses Even More Power in Leadership Shuffle

Choe is a close aide of Kim’s and replaces Kim Yong Nam, 91, who had served North Korea’s two previous rulers: Kim Jong Un’s father and grandfather. The move was seen as an indication that the younger Kim has fended off any potential threats and completed the transfer of power that began after his father Kim Jong Il died in 2011.

“He has established a supreme leadership role where he is -- as President George W. Bush once said -- the decider,” said Michael Madden, a nonresident fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington. “What they’re trying to communicate is that they have their house in order.”

Hanoi Summit

The moves were announced soon after President Donald Trump met with South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in in Washington on Thursday. The U.S. and South Korea are looking to restart talks to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons program that have been stalled since a summit in Hanoi between Trump and Kim ended in failure in February.

Kim Jong Un Amasses Even More Power in Leadership Shuffle

Kim Jong Un had made the talks with the U.S. a priority, meeting twice with Trump and several times with Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. Despite Pompeo’s insistence that Kim is ready to give up his nuclear weapons, skepticism remains high about his intentions and whether the talks are merely a ruse to extract concessions from the U.S.
In a signal that North Korea hasn’t given up on negotiating, Kim Yong Chol was reappointed a member of the State Affairs Commission. Kim is one of the best-known personalities involved in the nuclear talks, having met with Pompeo in Pyongyang and traveling to the U.S. earlier this year to visit Trump in the White House.

‘Open to Dialogue’

Choe Son Hui, another official who has played a highly visible role in the talks, was promoted to the job of first vice foreign minister.

Kim Jong Un Amasses Even More Power in Leadership Shuffle

That could give her even more sway if talks restart with the U.S. On Thursday, Trump said “the door remains open to dialogue,” though there’s been no indication that the U.S. envoy for the talks, Stephen Biegun, has had any substantive meetings with North Korean leaders since the Hanoi summit.

“Choe Son Hui as first vice foreign minister puts her in position to be Biegun’s counterpart if this goes back to the foreign ministry to negotiate,” said Victor Cha, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

--With assistance from Daniel Ten Kate.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Wadhams in Washington at nwadhams@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert

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