The Rise of Vice Marshal Cho Ryong Hae

The sudden removal of Vice Marshal Lee Young Ho, supposedly the most powerful military man in North Korea for " health reasons" combined with the emergence of Kim Jong Un's wife in the media signals a struggle between modernizers and conservatives in Pyongyang. Below is a profile of the man who has been increasingly photographed at the side of Kim Jong Un in recent months. I believe he will play a major role in North Korean politics in the coming months.

Vice Marshal Choe Ryong Hae is Director of the Korean People’s Army General Political Bureau. As Director he is responsible for the political management of the DPRK’s military forces. Choe is one of the second revolutionary generation and knew the late supreme leader Kim Jong Il for over 50 years. He has a vast network of political and social relationships across North Korean elites and has a close relationship with Jang Song Taek who is Kim Jong Un's uncle. During the 1980s and 1990s Choe had a leading role in consolidating the succession and political support of Kim Jong Un's father Kim Jong Il when he was head of the Kim Il Sung Youth League.


Choe Ryong Hae was born in Hwanghae Bukto in 1950. He is the son of Choe Hyon (1909-1982) who served as Minister of People’s Armed Forces and NDC Vice Chairman in the 1970s and was a revolutionary colleague of Kim Il Sung in the 88th Brigade before World War 2 . Choe trod the classic educational; path Mangyo’ngdae Revolutionary School and Kim Il Sung University.

After climbing the party ladder during the eighties and nineties he fell from grace in 1998 only to return later as a Deputy Director of the KWP General Affairs Department. From 2006 to 2010 he served as the Chief Secretary of the Hwanghae Bukto KWP Provincial Committee. Significantly, Choe traveled to China with Jang and Kim Jong Il in August 2010.

On 28 September 2010, Choe was given the rank of Korean People's Army [KPA] General in a military promotion to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Korean Workers’ Party. At the 3rd Party Conference he became a member of the CC KWP Secretariat and an alternate member of the CC KWP Political Bureau and member of the Central Military Commission.


Then in April 2012 Choe was promoted to KPA Vice Marshal. During the 4th Party Conference on 11 April 2012 Choe was also elected to membership of the Politburo Presidium and Vice Chairman of the Party Central Military Commission. At the 4th Party Conference, DPRK media noted that Choe had been appointed Director of the KPA General Political Bureau, a position close to the new leader. Then at the 5th session of the 12th SPA, Choe was elected a member of the National Defense Commission the nation's most powerful organization. He is now a very important person, just how important will unfold in the next year or two..