North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to personally oversee the funeral of Ri Ul-sol, a close aide to the young ruler’s deceased grandfather and a retired military marshal who died at the age of 94 from lung cancer Saturday, state media reported Sunday.
The “state funeral” will take place Wednesday after receiving mourners for three days from Sunday afternoon, the official Korean Central News Agency said, adding that his body is laid at the Central Hall of Workers in the capital.
Born in 1921 into a poor peasant family in Chongjin in North Hamgyong Province, Ri joined Kim Il-sung, the communist state’s founder and Kim Jong-un’s grandfather who led a guerilla squad that fought against Japanese colonial rulers in the 1930s.
“He dedicated his all to the sacred cause of liberating the country by participating in the glorious anti-Japanese armed struggle led by President Kim Il-sung in the dark period of the Japanese imperialist rule,” the KCNA said.
In 1950, shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War, he became chief of staff of the 4th division of the Fourth Division of the (North) Korean People’s Armed Forces.
He had since continued to rise up the military ladder, becoming a three-star general in 1972, a four-star general in 1985, a five-star general in 1992 and then a five-star marshal in 1995. He was the only and last surviving marshal other than the incumbent leader.
Ri has also served as a deputy to the Supreme People’s Assembly, the North’s rubber-stamp parliament, for 10 consecutive terms since first being elected in 1967, while working for the powerful National Defense Commission twice, in 1990 and 1998.
Pyongyang has set up a steering committee for the funeral, with Kim Jong-un himself taking the helm, the report noted. Among its 170 members are Kim Yong-nam, president of the Supreme People’s Assembly; Hwang Pyong-so, vice chairman of the NDC and director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army; Prime Minister Pak Pong-ju; Kim Ki-nam and Choe Thae-bok, secretaries of the ruling Workers’ Party; Defense Minister Pak Yong-sik; and Ri Yong-gil, chief of the military general staff.
The leader’s envisioned orchestrating of the service appeared somewhat distant from his consistent efforts since taking power in December 2011 to dilute the influence of the potent, rigid military within the regime.
Another conspicuous mark is the absence in the list of Choe Ryong-hae, a party secretary and former military politburo chief who was once deemed the country’s second most influential man following the execution in December 2013 of Kim’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, spawning speculation over the standing of his political fate.
Choe was seen continually enjoying the trust of the unpredictable leader and wielding formidable power even after stepping down from the top military post. In September, he traveled to Beijing as Kim’s special envoy and attended a military parade, and last month he received Liu Yunshan, a top Chinese Communist Party official, during his visit to Pyongyang.
“The list of the funeral committee is a vital reference to possible changes in the positions of the North Korean elite,” said Chong Seong-chang, head of unification strategy research at the Sejong Institute.
“Given that Choe is himself the offspring of a guerilla fighter, his exclusion is inconceivable unless he had been sacked from the party politburo and secretary posts. ... As his name last appeared in state media on Oct. 31, he could presumably be implicated in a major corruption scandal or face treason charges.”
By Shin Hyon-hee ()
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