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Kim Jong Un has shaken up North Korea’s military leadership, replacing his defense minister and restoring a veteran weapons strategist to the number two spot in the command structure.

Getting into it: The announcement was made by state news agency KCNA on Sunday, a day after the changes were approved at the second meeting of the Ninth Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party, which Kim chairs and ran himself.

No Kwang Chol, defense minister since October 2024, is out. He was moved to first vice director of the Munitions Industry Department, which KCNA framed as a demotion in party rank. No ran the Second Economic Committee, which oversees the defense industry, from 2016 to 2018, and was at Kim’s side for the summit rounds with the US, China, and South Korea. Kim Song Gi, who ran the Korean People’s Army General Political Bureau, will officially take over as defense minister.

The bigger move is Pak Jong Chon. He returns as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and joins the Politburo, which puts him back at number two in the military pecking order barely half a year after he was stripped of his posts at the Ninth Party Congress in February and thrown into an advisory job. Pak came up through artillery and ran the General Staff, and his name sits on most of what North Korea has built in artillery, ballistic missiles, and tactical nuclear weapons, many of them aimed at South Korea.

Additional moves included Yu Kwang U, who went from head of the KPA Security Bureau to first deputy director of the General Political Bureau and picked up a Politburo seat, and Om Ju Ho, previously the Air Force political commissar, who replaced him at the Security Bureau.

The same day as the reshuffle, Kim handed out top national honors to defense scientists and researchers at Party Central Committee headquarters. KCNA said they had helped in “resolving scientific and technological problems of epochal significance in developing new combat weapon systems” and that the weapons research center had come up with “exclusive technologies” that would give the North a harder edge in a fight.

The same day as the reshuffle, Kim handed out top national honors to defense scientists and researchers at Party Central Committee headquarters. KCNA said they had helped in “resolving scientific and technological problems of epochal significance in developing new combat weapon systems” and that the weapons research center had come up with “exclusive technologies” that would give the North a harder edge in a fight.

This comes as the U.S. and South Korea wrapped up their annual joint drills, exercises Pyongyang routinely condemns as practice for an invasion. This year’s drills were shortened amid concerns from the Trump administration that they could be seen as provocative. Trump has also recently praised Kim and expressed interest in another meeting, potentially before the end of the year, though North Korea has publicly shown little interest.