Following the sudden arrest and execution of Jang Song Taek as a result of a bloody fight among North Korea’s leadership over rights and interests, North Korean elites are now climbing over each other to pledge their allegiance to Kim Jong Un as they compete to grab Jang’s secret funds, foreign currency stashes and control over organizations tasked with earning foreign currency, according to a NKIS source in Sinuiju. 

Kim Jong Un is said to have benefited the most from Jang’s purge because he has become the sole recipient of a one million dollar slush fund formerly managed by his uncle. Sometime in 2010, Jang and Lee Su Yong received orders from Kim Jong Il to sell North Korea’s most prized sources of foreign currency and establish a slush fund for the leader. The fact that most of this money was being held in a secret safe at a Shanghai-based bank has turned out to be an open secret among the Pyongyang elite. After Kim Jong Un came to power he tried several times to use these funds, but faced opposition from his uncle. Jang reportedly refused to let the younger Kim access the funds, saying they were needed for something important. This ostensibly sparked resentment by Kim towards his uncle. After Jang was purged, Kim Jong Un quickly ordered Yun Sae Hyung, the chief of the Central Party’s Finances and Accounting Department’s “Department 9,” to head to Shanghai and withdraw the funds from Jang’s secret safe. 

Kim Jong Un now intends to place the 54 Department (the Gangsong Trade Company), which Jang took away from Lee Young Ho, under the control of the National Defense Committee. However, Chae Ryong Hae has also submitted a proposal to Kim to place the 54 Department under the purview of the Supreme Command to allow him to obtain the foreign currency needed to modernize the country’s military equipment. Currently, it is unclear what part of the regime will take over the department. 

The “Haedanghwa Organization,” led by Jang and tasked with overseeing the restaurants and accommodations spread throughout China’s major cities, was ordered by Kim to fall under the management of the Central Party’s Office 38. However, Kim Jong Un’s younger sister Kim Yeo Jeong, who is in charge of the Central Party’s Finances and Accounting Department’s Gyeongheung Guidance Department, has expressed her desire to take control of the operation, so there is a high possibility it will fall under her command.  

Kim Jong Un has given Office 39, which has control of the Korean Workers’ Party’s foreign currency earning operations, the right to manage Koryo Link, Chosun Fuel Company, and the Rason area’s casinos and joint ventures managed by the Special Zone Development Department. All of these ventures were previously under the control of Jang’s Party Administration Department under the pretext they required guidance from the Party. Kim is reportedly reorganizing the command structure of these organizations to make sure the money earned is placed in his own coffers. 

All areas of North Korea’s foreign currency earning operations formerly managed by Jang are said to be in a state of extreme confusion as they face inspection and central figures of the military, Party, and cabinet compete to submit proposals to Kim Jong Un to grab what they can.