Kim Min-Seok, South Korea's Ministry of National Defense spokesman, has acknowledged that his country has raised it's state of alert because of changes in hierarchy in the military of its northern neighbor.

The North’s Central Committee Politburo was called together on July 15th, to deal with an “organizational issue.”

On Monday, North Korea announced that long-time military chief, Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho had been stripped of all his posts. The reason given was illness. While this wouldn’t be a cause of concern in many countries, being relieved of posts because of illness is a rare occurance in the higher echelons of North Korea’s hierarchy. Normally, high ranking officials there will remain in their position until their death. Ri was relieved of all his party’s duties, including Politburo Standing Committee membership, Politburo membership, and Party Central Military Commission vice-chairmanship.

It is widely believed that the abrupt announcement was a purging of the Vice Marshal. Ri has made his objections to reform known in the past. If reform is in the works for North Korea, sacrificing Ri would have been necessary as he had control over 5 million members of the military and was also a member of all the important agencies within the Chosun Worker’s Party.

Just one day later, it was quietly announced in the north that a general, Hyon Yong Choi, little known outside of the country, had been placed in Ri’s now vacant position.

It was just one short month ago that Ri had issued an ultimatum to South Korea. Ri demanded apologies for what he called insults. If apologies were not forecomeing, he said that Seoul would face a “merciless sacred war.” It was only a month before that that North Korea had announced that it was preparing special operations against its southern neighbor.

The United States, according to South Korea, has stepped up it’s aerial intelligence of North Korea, but, they also said that there has been no apparent changes detected.

Yesterday, North Korea announced that Kim Jung Eun, North Korea’s leader, has been declared a Marshal of that country. Soldiers danced in the streets in response to the announcement. The dancing was ordered by Pyongyang. The promotion to the Supreme leader of North Korea was a necessary one, as he had a previous rank of general and so ranked lower than many of the military brass under his control.

There hasn’t been any sign of internal conflict in the structure of North Korea, and the military appeared stable and solidarity seemed evident, according to South Korea’s National Defense University’s Professor Kim Yeon-soo.

Kim believes that North Korea may be seriously considering following China’s lead on a path to long-term reform. He pointed out that North Korea may be responding to a push from China to open up to the outside world.

It was less than two weeks ago that the South Korean vice-chairman of the Reunification of the Fatherland Union, Ro Su Hui returned from North Korea ending his 104 day trip to North Korea.

Ro had been there to attend the 100-day ceremonies of the passing of Kim Jong-Il. Before crossing the border back into his homeland, Ro was subject to a send-off from the North. He was first honored with a ceremony under the Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification on the outskirts of Pyongyang, then, he was presented with flowers at the border, and as he was preparing to cross over, he declared to the crowd gathered on the northern side of the demilitarized zone, “Hurrah for the unification of the two Koreas!” The crowd responded with cheers.

The cheers were short-lived though, when he crossed back into his country, Ro was thrown to the ground before being ushered away in a headlock. The North Koreans, watching on their side of the zone, howled in horror. He was arrested for running afoul of South Korea’s National Security Act which forbids anyone to speak favorably of North Korea or Communism. His trip into North Korea was considered an illegal act.