VMar Choe Ryong Hae, Director of the Korean People’s Army [KPA] General Political Department, is rumored to have been placed under arrest. Korea Times, citing a report from FRNK, reports that Choe was apprehended by personnel of the Ministry of State Security early in the morning of 21 February. His last observed appearances were a visit by senior KPA officials to Ku’msusan and a central report meeting, both marking the birth anniversary of late leader Kim Jong Il (Kim Cho’ng-il). Korea Times/FRNK also claimed that various work documents were confiscated from his home and his office (said to be at the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces). FRNK‘s correspondents speculated that “Choe’s alleged arrest might have resulted from his failure to keep the state military’s morale closely attached to their leader Kim Jong-un” and that “Choe opposed some profitable state businesses whose control was transferred to administrative governments after the execution of Jang Song-thaek in December last year. It posed a direct challenge to directives assigned by Kim Jong-un.”
On 25 February, Chosun Ilbo noted that the number of VMar Choe’s reported public appearances during 2014 were down and conjectured that he “is fading from view already.” On 28 February, John Grisafi of NK News observed that VMar Choe failed to attend a meeting of ideological officials with Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) held in Pyongyang on 25 February If reports about his arrest are accurate, this would not be Choe’s first run-in with the law. In 1997 he was removed as 1st Secretary of the Kim Il Sung Youth League for, among other things, asset stripping and failing to report the revenue to the central party.
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