Though it is officially a part of the Administration Council or the cabinet, the Ministry of People's Security (the police) is beyond the control of the premier; instead it is directed by Section No. 7 (the administration sector) of the all powerful Organization and Guidance Department of the Workers' Party. The ministry's basic missions are maintaining public security and establishing social order, but it functions as "the political defender of the party, safeguarding and defending the party and the supreme leader in terms of political ideology at the risk of its own life."

Launched as a bureau of the Ministry of Home Affairs in September 1948 when the North Korean government was inaugurated, the Ministry of People's Security came into being in March 1951. Following a series of revamping in jurisdiction and organization, it was re-christened as the Ministry of Social Security in a cabinet reorganization under a constitutional amendment effected in September 1998. It was again revamped into the Ministry of People's Security in April the following year and was reorganized along completely military lines from a semi-military one. Manpower was also reinforced drastically, with the strength of the police's lowest complements boosted from 5 or 6 to 20 to 30 members.

The Ministry of People's Security maintains security bureaus in provinces and special cities under the direct control of the central government, the security stations in cities or districts and counties, and the branches in villages or labor districts. The ministry encompasses about 25 functional bureaus and a large number of subordinate agencies. Ministry bureaus are dubbed by Arabian figures; Bureau No. 1 handles prosecution, Bureau No. 2 investigation, Bureau No. 3 preliminary investigation, Bureau No. 4 security, Bureau No. 5 guarding, Bureau No. 6 construction engineering, Bureau No. 7 reformation, and Bureau No. 8 residents' registration.

The bureau with the greatest power and perks is Bureau No. 1 or the Political Bureau, an agency of the party. Under the table of organization, the people's security minister, vice-marshal Baek Hak Rim, is the senior, but wielding power in the ministry is the Political Bureau director-general, senior colonel Sim Won Il.

(Kim Kwang Ik, kki@chosun.com )