Radio Free Asia says that North Korea’s State Security Department has become increasingly powerful since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took over command and control of the reclusive state.
 
Citing a source in Pyongyang, the broadcaster reported on Saturday that the department is exerting the greatest power and influence compared to other arms of the regime, while the Ministry of People’s Security is losing power.
 
Another source in North Pyeongan Province said that senior officials in their 50s from the ministry cringe before young officials in their 30s from the department.
 
The source said that North Korean residents think that the second most powerful person in the North is chief of the department Kim Won-hong, not the chief of the North Korean army's General Political Bureau, Hwang Pyong-so.
 
The State Security Department, one of the most powerful state institutions in the North, conducts domestic intelligence to detect counter-revolutionary figures.