North Korea has relieved the octogenarian Vice Marshal Kim Il-chol, a member of the regime's top decision-making body, of all his official positions, it said Friday. The North's official Korean Central News Agency said, "In accordance with a National Defense Commission decision, Kim Il-chol has been relieved of his positions as a NDC member and first vice minister of the People's Armed Forces because of his advanced age." Kim is 80.
It is unprecedented for the North Korean regime to fire a top official based on age. It has allowed senior officials to stay at their posts until they die since leader Kim Jong-il said in December 1995, "It is a noble sense of obligation for a revolutionary to respect senior revolutionaries."
Older officials than Kim Il-chol are still working as NDC members, including Jo Myong-rok (82), the director of the General Political Department, Jon Pyong-ho (84), a secretary for military logistics, and Ri Yong-mu (87), an NDC vice chairman. Kim Ki-nam, a secretary of the Workers' Party's Central Committee, is 83. He came to Seoul in August last year to attend the funeral of former President Kim Dae-jung.
Ryu Dong-ryeol, a researcher at the Police Science Institute, said, "This may be a signal for a generational shift or regime restructuring." He suggested that senior members of the military, party and government will likely be replaced as Kim Jong-il consolidates his succession by his son Jong-un.
A North Korean source speculated that Kim Il-chol was removed because he had made some kind of mistake, perhaps because he complained about his status or lost out in internal power struggles. He had been demoted from minister of the People's Armed Forces to first vice minister in February last year.
A former naval commander, he was promoted to minister in 1998. He came to Seoul in 2000, leading the North Korean delegation to inter-Korean defense ministers' meeting.