South Korea: Top officials protecting Kim are replaced by North Korea

South Korea: Seoul’s unification ministry said on Tuesday that North Korea had just changed its top guards for leader Kim Jong-un.

According to the ministry’s analysis of the significant reorganization of North Korean officials in 2025, North Korea has replaced the leaders of three key units that protect the security of the North’s leader: the Guard Command, the Guard Department of the State Affairs Commission, and the Guard Office of the ruling party.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the ministry said that the new heads of these agencies were discovered during a military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea’s (WPK) establishment in October 2025, albeit it did not specify the precise day or the cause for the shift.A ministry official said, “It is evident that North Korea has replaced officials in charge of guarding the ‘supreme leader’ in a relatively short period of time.”

The ministry also said that it is expected that Ri Pyong-chol, a senior North Korean military official, would be ousted from his position as deputy chairman of the WPK’s Military Central Commission.

With Ri’s alleged relegation to a member, the praesidium of the political bureau in North Korea has four members instead of the prior five.

The North’s leader Kim, Premier Pak Thae-song, Choe Ryong-hae, head of the parliament’s standing committee, and party secretary Jo Yong-won now make up the praesidium. Pak Jong-chon is now the only deputy chairman of the Central Military Commission after Ri’s dismissal.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un praised the sacrifice of the North’s troops in Russia’s war against Ukraine as a “eternal cornerstone” for Pyongyang during his visit to the site of a monument for those soldiers last week, according to state media.

According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim “visited the construction site of the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations” in Pyongyang the day before and excavated the first shovelful of dirt for the museum’s tree planting.

Kim was joined at the occasion by her wife, Ri Sol-ju, and daughter, Ju-ae, according to images issued by the North’s official media. Ju-ae was seen digging the dirt with her father during the tree planting.

Kim said that the sacrifice of North Korean soldiers “would serve as the solid root and eternal cornerstone supporting the mightiness of the motherly DPRK,” the KCNA reported.

The official name of the nation is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK.

In August of last year, Kim announced plans to build a museum in October and dedicate a unique roadway in Pyongyang to honor the troops who were sent to aid Russia in the war.

For the first time, North Korea will erect a museum to honor troops who lost their lives in combat abroad.

Thousands more North Koreans are said to have died in combat while supporting Russia’s war operations with more than 10,000 soldiers and conventional weaponry.