North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

CMC Holds Meeting

Kim Jong Un chairs a CMC meeting in central Pyongyang on 12 March 2023 (Photo: KCNA).

The Workers’ Party of Korea [WPK] Central Military Commission [CMC] met in an enlarged session (or held on an expansion basis) at the WPK Central Committee Office Building on 12 March (Sunday).  Technically, this was the 5th enlarged meeting of the 8th CMC.  The CMC gathered as “the whole country has turned out in the efforts to the implement the resolutions of the 8th Congress of the WPK and plenary meetings of its Central Committee in single-hearted unity.”
Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n; KJU) attended and chaired the CMC meeting.  Among those joining KJU at the table were: DPRK Premier Kim Tok Hun (Kim Tok-hun), WPK Secretary for Organizational Affairs Jo Yong Won (Cho Yo’ng-wo’n), WPK Secretary for Military Affairs and CMC Vice Chairman Ri Yong Gil (Ri Yo’ng-kil), Chief of the Korean People’s Army [KPA] General Staff Gen. Pak Su Gil (Pak Su-kil), KPA General Political Bureau Director Jong Kyong Thaek (Cho’ng Kyo’ng-t’aek), Minister of National Defense Gen. Kang Sun Nam (Kang Sun-nam), WPK Military Affairs Department and WPK Civil Defense Department Director O Il Jong (O Il-cho’ng), WPK Organization Guidance Department Senior Deputy Director Kim Jo Guk (Kim Cho-kuk), Minister of Public Security Gen. Ri Thae Sop (Ri T’ae-sop), KPA Navy Commander ADM Kim Myong Sik (Kim Myo’ng-sik), State Security Department Director Ri Chang Dae (Ri Chang-tae) and Military Security Command Director Gen. Jo Kyong Chol (Cho Kyo’ng-ch’o’l).  WPK Secretary for Propaganda and Agitation Ri Il Hwan (Ri Il-hwan)  Also in attendance were other CMC Members, command staff of the KPA General Staff and Ministry of National Defense, corps commanders and a variety of cadres from Central Committee Departments.  CMC Vice Chairman and WPK Secretary Ri Pyong Chol (Ri Pyo’ng-ch’o’l) did not attend the meeting.
First, the CMC took up the KPA’s contributions to domestic economic policies (soldier-builders, soldier-farmers and whatnot).  The CMC “reaffirmed the importance of solving the rural question, set forth by the WPK, as a prerequisite and strategic foremost affair in accomplishing the cause of socialism, and the present rural constructions” and that “since the medium- and long-term development orientation and goal for the socialist rural construction were set clearly, it raised as a key point for discussion the issue of implementing them unconditionally.”

The CMC meeting “confirmed the KPA’s action orientation and detailed duties for accelerating rural development, regional construction and grand socialist construction which the Party has planned on a long-term basis and is leading as a purposeful struggle, discussed the organizational and structural measures for implementing them and ways for using forces, and unanimously approved the relevant resolutions.”

Second, the CMC took up military and defense industry policy.  It “discussed and adopted the important practical steps for making more effective, powerful and offensive use of the war deterrent of the country in coping with the present situation in which the war provocations of the US and south Korea are reaching the red line.”  KJU reviewed the “subjective and objective situation of our revolution” and he remarked that the “present grand drive for creation for accomplishing the gigantic cause of overall national prosperity, resolutely overcoming all the challenges and difficulties, calls upon the KPA, that always played a vanguard role in the struggle for implementing the grand, practical program of the Party, to lead the whole society with more advancing and vigorous struggle.”

Kim Jong Un said that the “KPA should become a driving force and model in the sacred struggle for the socialist rural construction and economic development to turn the ideal of the people into reality, unconditionally implement the step wise goals and thus bring about the entities of prosperity welcomed by the whole country year after year.”  The CMC meeting participants “made a firm pledge to certainly attain the goals of grand changes for national prosperity by fulfilling their important responsibilities and duties in carrying out the militant tasks set forth by the Party Central Military Commission.”

Information

This article was written on 14 Mar 2023, and is filled under 2023 missile events, 2023 Strategic Rhetoric, 2023 Tactical Rhetoric, 2nd Academy of Natural Science, 8th Party Congress, armored division, Artillery Corps, Atomic Weapons Institute, Ballistic Missile Guidance Bureau, basic party organizations, Central Committee, Central Military Committee, Central Party Affairs/Cadres 5th Section, CG Pak Kwang Ju, chemical facilities, Choe Gil Ryong (V Corps), Civil Defense Department, Col. Gen. Choe Tu Yong, Col. Gen. Kwon Thae Yong (GLD/MPAF), Col. Gen. No Kwang Chol (KPAGS), Col. Gen. O Il Jong, Col. Gen. Pak Su Il (GSD/MPS), Comprehensive Affairs, corps command, corps commanders, critical infrastructure, DPRK Cabinet, DPRK Civil Defense Forces, DPRK External Relations, DPRK Intelligence Community, DPRK military engagement, DPRK Premier, DPRK space programs, east sea command, east sea KPN command, Economic Complexes, Five Year Plan (2021), food production, Gen Pang Tu Sop, Gen. Jo Kyong Chol, Gen. Ri Pyong Chol, Gen. Ri Yong Gil, General Affairs, gsd, gsob, Guard Command, Hwasal-2 SCM, Hwasong-10 tests, Hwasong-15, hwasong-8, ideological slogans, Inter-Korean Relations, internal security, Jo Yong Won, Jong Kyong Thaek (State Security), Kim Chong-un inspections, Kim Family, Kim Jong Gil (SFC CO), Kim Jong Un Visits, Kim Jong-un, Kim Tok Hun, KJU Personal Secretariat, Korean People's Air Force, Korean People's Air Force [KPAF], Korean People's Army Air Force, Korean People's Army Supreme Command, Korean People's Internal Security Forces, Korean People's Army (KPA), Korean Workers' Party (KWP), KPA branch party organizations, KPA Cadres Bureau, KPA construction battalions, KPA construction brigades, KPA East Command Zone, KPA External Relations, KPA fishing units, KPA General Logistics Department, KPA General Political Bureau, KPA General Political Department, KPA General Staff, KPA General Staff Nuclear Chemical Bureau, KPA infantry corps, KPA Large Combined Units, KPA multiple-launch rocket systems, KPA Organization Department, KPA Southwestern Front Command, KPA Strategic Rocket Force Command, KPA supernumerary organizations, KPA Supreme Command, KPA West Sea Command, KPA WPK Committee, kpif, Lt. Gen. Ju Song Nam (815th Mechanized Division GPD), Lt. Gen. Kang Sun Nam, Lt. Gen. Kim Jong Gwan (MPAF), Lt. Gen. Kim Myong Nam (PDC), Lt. Gen. Kim To Un (PDC GPD), Lt. Gen. Ko Myong Su (815th Mechanized Division), Lt. Gen. Pang Kwan Bok (GS/Training Bureau), Machine Building Industry Department, Mechanized Command, medium-range ballistic missiles, Military Affairs, military economy, military security command [msc], mines, Minister of People's Security/KPISF construction units, Ministry of Coal Industry, Ministry of Food and Procurement, Ministry of Foodstuffs and Daily Necessities, ministry of people's security, Ministry of People's Security engineering units, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of State Security, Ministry of the People's Armed Forces (MPAF), Missile Guidance Bureau, MPAF GPB, National Academy of Defense Sciences, Navy Command, NLL, Notification, nuclear weapons, O Il Jong, Office of Military Officers, Operations Bureau Department 10, Organization and Guidance Department, Pak Su Il (MPS/corps), Political Bureau, primary party committees, Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, Pyongyang Defense Command, Reconnaissance Bureau, reserve training units, Ri Chang Dae (SSD), Ri Pyong Chol, Ri Thae Sop (MPS/corps), RMTUs, road mobile ballistic missile, Ryo Chol Ung (II Corps), SCUD, Second Economic Committee, Second Economy Commission, Secretariat, short-range ballistic missiles, Sohae Space Launching Station, State Affairs Commission, State Security Department, Tank Command, TEL, theater ballistic missile, VADM Kim Myong Sik (KPAN), VADM Ri Yong Chu, wo'nsan corps, worker peasant red guard, Worker Peasant Red Guard, Workers' and Social Organizations, XI Army Corps (SOF), Young Red Guard, Youth Shock Brigades.

An affiliate of 38 North