Kim Jong-un attendance at KPA meeting designed to solidify leadership

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's attendance at a meeting of security personnel is part of an ongoing process to help him solidify control over the entire country, a government source said Thursday. The unification ministry source said the latest meeting between Kim and members of the Korean People's Army (KPA) security forces seems to have been orchestrated by Pyongyang to bolster his image as the supreme commander of the armed forces. The gathering reported by the Korean Central News Agency, earlier in the day, is the first to be held in 20 years. KPA security personnel are like members of South Korea's Defense Security Command and are responsible for counter espionage operations and internal surveillance. Kim, thought to be around 30, inherited the communist country upon the sudden death of his father Kim Jong-il in late 2011. Before taking power, he had very little time to be groomed for the top post, which raised alarm bells about his ability to take charge. "There has been an increase in large public gatherings attended by Kim in the past year that may be part of a plan to exert greater control over every aspect of the country, boost the morale of various state agencies, rally people around the new leader, and propagate the orders of the ruling party to officials and soldiers," said the official, who declined to be identified. He said compared to his father, who rarely made public appearances or gave speeches, the incumbent leader has courted the people he meets and frequently makes speeches. The insider then said that the meetings are not randomly arranged and seem to follow a pattern with the leader placing the most importance on winning over working-level officers and officials in security organizations, the military, the ruling party and the government. Kim was present at the meeting of company commanders and political commissars of the KPA late last month, as well as the meeting of secretaries of cells of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in January. He has been present in many other official military, party and government events. Representing such goals, Col. General Jo Kyong-chol, the head of the security organization, stressed at the meeting that all security personnel must guard the leader and the policies of the state in accordance with the rules set by the country's founder, Kim Il-sung, and late leader Kim Jong-il. The founder is the grandfather of the incumbent head. The unification ministry spokesman, meanwhile, said that while Seoul is checking reports that an American citizen is being detained in the North, he did not think it is appropriate for him to comment on it. "The U.S. government has been guarded on this matter," he argued. American media reported Wednesday that Merrill Newman, an 85-year-old from Palo Alto, Calif., is being held in the North after he entered the country on a tourist visa.