Gen. Pak Su Il
Gen. Pak Su Il (back row, left) at a February 2022 banquet marking the anniversary of the foundation of the KPA (Photo: KCNA).
produced and disseminated 16 November 2024
General Pak Su Il is a Member of the Workers’ Party of Korea [WPK] Central Committee and a deputy to the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly. He is former Chief of the Korean People’s Army [KPA] General Staff and Minister of Public Security.
Pak’s name first appeared in state media when he was promoted to Major General on 14 April 2004, joining the cohort of KPA general-grade officers. He was elected to the 13th SPA in 2014. In the ten intervening years, as a KPA general, it can be reasonably surmised that he rotated between a combination of field command (as head of a brigade and/or division) and KPA headquarters positions. He was a member of the state funeral committee organized for Marshal Ri Ul Sol in 2015 and his listing indicated he was serving as a KPA corps commander.
Pak Su Il was elected a Member of the WPK Central Committee during the 7th Party Congress in 2016. He was appointed 1st Vice Chief of the KPA General Staff and Director of the KPA General Staff Operations Bureau in 2017. He was elected to the 14th SPA in 2019 and, according to ROK intelligence, appointed commander of the I Army Corps around September 2019. Pak was returned to the WPK Central Committee during the 8th Party Congress in December 2021, but later demoted in rank and tossed off the Central Committee, along with the demotions and suspensions of other KPA generals and WPK military-related cadres. Six months later, in June 2021, he returned to the Central Committee as an alternate (candidate) member.
He was restored to his Colonel General rank in the Sun’s Day promotions order on 14 April 2022. In June 2022, Pak Su Il was appointed Minister of Public Security, North Korea’s top law enforcement official, and elevated to the concurrent statutory position of Chairman of the SPA Legislation Committee. Gen. Pak was appointed Chief of the KPA General Staff in December 2022. He was also elected an alternate (candidate) member of the WPK Political Bureau and member of the WPK Central Military Commission.
Gen. Pak was removed from office as Chief of the KPA General Staff during the expanded 7th plenary meeting of the 8th Central Military Commission in August 2023 and his current position is not known. However, he remains an active senior DPRK elite.
