A photo released by KCNA news agency on March 12, 2013, shows North Korea leader Kim Jong Un visiting the Wolnae-do Defence Detachment on the western front line. (KCNA/Xinhua/Zuma Press/MCT)
A report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that was picked up by the Washington Post suggests that the move was a way to ease tensions within the military before a possible denuclearization deal is struck with the U.S.
“The North appears to have brought in new figures amid the changes in inter-Korean relations and the situation on the Korean Peninsula, as the previous officials lacked flexibility in thinking,” according to a source that spoke with Yonhap.
The officials who were reportedly dropped included some of North Korea’s highest-ranking individuals.
