Death and state funeral of Choe Sŭng-min

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Choe Sŭng-min, the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Socialist Republic of Menghe, died on 17 February 2021 at Sinsuk Central Hospital in Donggyŏng after suffering a series of heart attacks. He was 81 years old. The standing members of the Supreme Council instituted a 10-day mourning period, during which flags were flown at half-staff and celebrations were forbidden. Choe's body lay in state in a glass coffin in Heroes' Square from the 18th to the 27th, allowing mourners from the general public to file past. At noon on the 27th, a formal funeral ceremony was held, and Choe's body was taken to the Sudŏk Temple for cremation.

Background

The last five years of Choe Sŭng-min's life were marked by a string of increasingly serious medical issues, primarily heart disease and angina. In late August of 2017, he disappeared from the national spotlight for close to a month, fueling wild speculation that he was dead. On September 17th, he held a special interview with reporters from the Jung'ang Ilbo to confirm that he was alive, though he spoke from a hospital bed and the guards at the hospital did not allow cameras into the building. He gave a televised statement in early October, again from Bŏdŭl-ri, but did not return to Donggyŏng until November. On 5 January 2019, state media announced that he had suffered a serious fall in the Donggwangsan Palace and was undergoing emergency treatment, but he ultimately recovered. A series of other, more minor medical incidents characterized his final years in office; he was absent from several important meetings of the Supreme Council, and made fewer public appearances.

Death

At 10:28 PM on 12 February 2021, Choe Sŭng-min was being driven back to the Donggwangsan Palace from a New Year's Day event when he told his aides that he was feeling severe dizziness and pain in his chest, and that he suspected he was having a heart attack. His aides abruptly re-routed his motorcade to Sinsuk Central Hospital, which was closest to the existing travel route. By the time Choe arrived, he was unconscious and in critical condition. Hospital staff rushed him to the emergency room, and a special security cordon was set up around his wing of the hospital.

While doctors at the hospital were able to stabilize Choe's condition in the early morning of the 13th, he remained unconscious and on life support. Over the following days, however, his condition rapidly worsened. He suffered another heart attack on the 17th, and was pronounced dead at 11:52 PM.

Immediately upon learning of Choe's death, First Deputy Chairman Kim Pyŏng-so ordered an emergency meeting of the Supreme Council Central Steering Committee, which convened in the early hours of the morning on the 18th. Following informal arrangements that were made during the later years of Choe's life, they concluded that Kim would ultimately succeed Choe as Chairman of the Supreme Council, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and General-Secretary of the Menghean Socialist Party, but that he would retain his deputy posts until the 28th. During the period of mourning, all of Choe's government positions would be left empty in his honor, with his deputies acting on his behalf.

Initially, the government released no information about Choe's death, and forbade hospital staff from disclosing any information to the public. His sudden hospitalization, however, was already widely reported, even if the details were secret. Speculation about the Chairman's death flared up after 3 AM, when large convoys of Internal Security Troops were spotted moving through the central and northern parts of Donggyŏng to establish security cordons ahead of the funeral; this development also sparked rumors of an attempted coup. A number of late-night entertainment channels abruptly stopped their regular programming at around the same time. Morning deliveries of the Jung'ang Ilbo and Dangjung Sinmun newspapers were also suspended, and their newsstands remained empty: both state-owned papers had received orders after midnight to print an obituary approved by the Supreme Council on their morning papers, and were re-running the presses. When the Menghean Central Broadcasting Network (MCBN) began its early-morning program at 6:00, all reporters were dressed in black and wore somber expressions, though they did not report on any stories relating to the Chairman's health. This served as an early, if unofficial, warning that a major announcement was on the way.

At 7:05 AM on Thursday, February 18th, the host of the MCBN's morning news segment tearfully read a formal statement announcing that Choe Sŭng-min had passed away the previous night from a heart attack. Along with the implication in preceding coverage that a major event had occurred, this broadcast was timed to reach maximum viewership. In addition to confirming the Chairman's death, the statement declared that a ten-day mourning period was in effect; that the Chairman's body would lie in state in Heroes' Square until the 21st, to allow viewing by the general public; that a formal funeral ceremony would take place on the 27th; and that, at the end of this ceremony, the Chairman's body would be taken to the Sudŏk Temple for cremation.

Shortly after the MCBN announcer finished reading, other state-run news stations carried the same story. The Jung'ang Ilbo and Dangjung Sinmun began delivering their delayed morning editions, with front-page stories on the Chairman's death and upcoming funeral. Already informed by their Socialist Party school committees, teachers announced Choe's death to their students at the start of morning classes, and a number of workplaces held special conferences with their employees. Before the end of the hour, crowds of mourners had already gathered in Heroes' Square opposite the Donggwangsan Palace.

Lying in state

Over the preceding years, the Menghean government had already drawn up, with Choe's knowledge and approval, a plan of action for the Chairman's funeral. Many top agencies had already been given sealed envelopes with instructions to follow during the ceremony, to be opened after explicit instruction from a higher Party organ. In the mid-morning hours of the 18th, a convoy of trucks arrived in Heroes' Square and began setting up a covered pavilion facing Donggwangsan, using plans and building materials stored at a warehouse outside the city. Also stored at the warehouse was a specially made glass coffin, which was rushed to the hospital at the same time.

After being prepared for short-term display at the hospital, Choe Sŭng-min's body was placed in the glass coffin and transported to Heroes' Square in the afternoon. This was the first procession of the ten-day ceremony, and it drew large crowds on both sides of the route, which was temporarily closed to traffic. By the time Choe's body arrived, work on the temporary pavilion was complete, and the coffin was put on display. That afternoon and evening, top State, Party, and Military leaders filed past Choe's body, in decreasing order of authority. Kim Pyŏng-so went first, followed by Mun Chang-ho. Crowds of onlookers gathered around the square, but the square itself was closed off.

The following day, the display stage was opened to members of the general public. Security checkpoints were set up at the entrances to Heroes' Square, and visitors were screened at the northwest entrance, where the queue filed into the square, up the steps at the side of the pavilion, past the coffin, down the other side, and out the exit. Visitors were allowed to bring gifts and offerings, which were collected and displayed at two stations in the square. These gifts ultimately included several thousand copies of the Collected Quotations from Choe Sŭng-min.

Funeral and cremation

On the final day of the mourning period, February 27th, Heroes' Square was closed off again for the final round of ceremonies. Top State and Party leaders filed past the coffin again, then took up seats facing the platform. Distant members of Choe Sŭng-min's family followed; he had no surviving immediate relatives. Visiting foreign delegations came next, followed by Ministry and Provincial leaders. At noon, after all high-ranking attendees had passed, the following individuals gave eulogy speeches from a podium in front of the pavilion:

  1. Kim Pyŏng-so, First Deputy Chairman and First Deputy General Secretary
  2. Mun Chang-ho, Deputy Chairman and Deputy General Secretary
  3. Kim Jŏng-min, Minister of National Defense
  4. Ri Hyo-jin, Speaker of the National Assembly

After the ceremony finished, guards from the 12th Kimsŏng Tank Division - Choe's former unit, which took part in the Decembrist Revolution - carried the coffin down from the stage and into a waiting hearse. With a procession of top leaders being driven in tow, the motorcade moved north on Meridian Avenue, retracing in reverse part of the route which Choe's tanks took into the square in 1987. Rows of guards stood at attention on either side of the parade route, holding back crowds of onlookers. As the procession made its way north, artillery guns in Heroes' Square fired a special 33-gun salute, with one salvo for each year of Choe Sŭng-min's time in office.

Choe's body arrived at the Sudŏk temple in the afternoon, for a purification rite and final ceremony. When the cremation process began at 2:00 PM, citizens across the country observed a mandatory five-minute period of silence, announced via the nationwide alert system. All non-essential active military units stood at attention for the full two hours of the cremation itself, as did a number of Party cells and especially devoted citizens.

After the cremation process was complete, Choe Sŭng-min's ashes were divided between a number of ceremonial urns. The largest urn, containing most of the ashes and bones, was transported to a mountain tomb near Choe's hometown in North Chŏllo Province, a location chosen for its remote and pristine nature. A finger bone and a small sample of ashes were placed in a miniature urn, which was brought back to the Donggwangsan Palace and temporarily enshrined in the Palace Museum, to allow additional citizens to pay their respects. Several other small ash samples were collected, to be enshrined in temples across the country. Chŏndo tradition holds that the spirit of the deceased can visit the mortal world at any shrine with their ashes, and such a division of ashes is common in Menghe.

Foreign dignitaries

As a gesture of friendship and goodwill, the Menghean government invited official dignitaries from all states with which Menghe maintains active foreign relations, including members of the Entente Cordiale. Official dignitaries from states without official Menghean recognition were not invited; this category included Altagracia, Isla Diamante, and the People's Republic of Innominada. Pro-Menghean opposition parties from these countries were, however, invited to attend, albeit with reduced status. Ultimately, the following foreign delegations arrived in Donggyŏng to take part in the final ceremony on February 27th.

Recognized States

Parties and Organizations

  • Argentan Reunification Front (Isla Diamante): General-Secretary Soukhanh Syhavong
  • Homeland Unification Front (Altagracia): General-Secretary Li Gwang-sŏn
  • Vinyan Union: Secretary-General Aadelheide Aasmäe

Succession dispute

While contingency plans for Choe Sŭng-min's funeral had been laid out years in advance, succession arrangements were a mostly taboo topic in his Supreme Council, as the Chairman feared that open discussion of succession could encourage conspiracies against him. While insisting on total control at the top, Choe had tolerated and even encouraged factional disputes, using them as an opportunity to play potential rivals against one another. This meant that after his death, which followed a 33-year stint in office, the government of the Socialist Republic of Menghe was ill-prepared to handle a transition of power.

During its emergency meeting on February 18th, the Supreme Council concluded that all of Choe Sŭng-min's posts would remain vacant for the full duration of the mourning period, in a symbolic show of respect for Choe Sŭng-min's legacy. During the mourning period, the first deputy officer for each post would perform all of its associated duties, a practice already familiar from Choe's prior hospitalizations. While Menghe's top leaders put on a public show of solidarity at the funeral ceremonies, behind closed doors they were engaged in tense negotiations over how to fill the vacant posts in the long term.

These tensions were compounded by the increased military presence in the city. Immediately after Choe's death, as part of the funeral arrangements, Donggyŏng's Rapid Response Brigade was activated and additional internal security units were brought into the city. The Internal Security Forces increased the guard presence at key government buildings, ostensibly to prevent terrorists or dissidents from exploiting the instability around Choe's death or attempting to disrupt the ceremonies. Soldiers from the 12th Kimsŏng Tank Division were brought in to take part in the ceremonies, and several squadrons of aircraft were transferred to the military base at Donggyŏng Capital Airport to perform flyovers. This increased troop presence led to some public speculation that an attempted coup was in the works. Gun Se-yŏng, the Minister of Internal Security, later testified that on the night of the 19th Marshal Kang Yong-nam had met with him to discuss the possibility of using the Internal Security Forces to detain reformist members of the Supreme Council. Gun confessed that while he was sympathetic to Kang's security faction and would not arrest Kang for treason, he was unwilling to tarnish Choe Sŭng-min's honor by using his funeral as cover for a military coup. There is some debate over the reliability of this account, as Gun Se-yŏng provided it during a show trial after Kang's dismissal, but the presence of the Internal Security Forces ultimately prevented any back-room disputes from spilling out into the open.

Mun Chang-ho, the leader of the reformist faction in the Party, adopted a more cautious approach. Well aware that the current pressing threat came from the Army and the Internal Security apparatus, Mun fully threw in his support for Kim Pyŏng-so, the First Deputy Chairman and presumed successor. Described by one anonymous insider as "a poor leader but an excellent follower," Kim held Choe's favor mainly because of his lack of ambition, willingness to compromise, and steadfast loyalty to the evolving Party line, which made him the ideal second-in-command for a wary dictator. With Choe gone, Mun Chang-ho either felt that he was in a position to manipulate Kim, or anticipated that Kim would eventually prove to be a disappointment in office. Behind closed doors, the two worked out a compromise. The reformist faction would back Kim Pyŏng-so's inauguration to the "ruling trio" posts of Chairman of the Supreme Council, General-Secretary of the Socialist Party, and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, giving him the same supreme power as Choe Sŭng-min. In return, Kim would reward the reformists and their allies with new ministry appointments, while making no such offers to the security faction forming around Kang Yong-nam. This compromise was reflected in the list of speakers at Choe Sŭng-min's eulogy ceremony: all were top Party and State officials, with no representatives of the Army and no members of the security faction. Even Kim Jŏng-min, the Minister of National Defense, was a staunchly establishment figure who had clashed with Kang on previous occasions. Nevertheless, Kang Yong-nam was among the column of top officials who filed past Choe's coffin before the eulogies began, and he was part of the procession that accompanied his body to the Sudŏk Temple.

See also

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