Gen. Yun Jong Rin (Yun Chong-rin)

Gen. Yun Jong Rin (4th L)

updated February 24, 2018

General Yun Jong Rin (Yun Cho’ng-rin) is commanding officer and director of the Guard Command, which is responsible for personal security of Kim Jong Un and core DPRK elites.  Yun directs and manages the most powerful and technologically advanced of all of the country’s security services or military branches.  He is also a member of the Workers’ Party of Korea [WPK] Central Committee and deputy to the Supreme People’s Assembly [SPA]

Yun served as close protection escort (bodyguard) to the DPRK’s late leader Kim Jong Il and held various command positions in the bodyguard corps.  When the Guard Command was created as it own security service in the 1990s, Yun was appointed Chief of Staff.  He  was promoted to Colonel General in 1995.  He was viewed as “a rising star” when he replaced Mar Ri Ul Sol (Yi U’l-so’l) as director of the Guard Command in 2003 following Ri’s retirement.  Yun is a protege of the late VMar Jang Song U (Chang So’ng-u) when Jang ran the Guard Command’s daily operations at its political director with Yun serving as Chief of Staff.

Yun was promoted to General on April 22, 2010 one of only two promotions Kim Jong Il issued on Army Day.  He was elected to membership in the WPK Central Committee and the WPK Central Military Commission during the 3rd Party Conference on September 28, 2010.  Gen. Yun was temporarily demoted to Colonel General around 2014, but saw his rank restored in 2015.