Kim Jong-Un orders execution of military officials over troops food portions
Trigger-happy despot Kim Jong-Un has ordered the execution of yet more top-ranking officials – for not giving his troops larger portions of rice.
The North Korean dictator followed up his slaying of a defence chief by anti-aircraft missile with another purge of military top brass – this time for not giving soldiers more food.
In the latest cull, vice armed forces minister So Hong-chan – and several others ‘close to him’ – were killed for not following orders.
Observers believe So has been taken out because he was not seen during Kim’s visit to the Kumsusan Place of the Sun to see the embalmed bodies of his father and grandfather.
So was seen with Kim on earlier visits to the memorial.
SERIES OF EXECUTION
He was last seen publicly during one of Kim’s ‘field guidance’ visits, where the dictator offers advice to his people.
Senior military officials are said to have been punished for their failure to increase the rice allowance for the nation’s soldiers.
It is the latest in a series of executions ordered by Kim. Observers are unclear if it is due to a power struggle with the army top brass, or the dictator ‘flexing his muscles’.
Kim has in the past ordered the execution of 16 senior officials this year as punishment for challenging his authority. In all, around 70 officials have been executed since Kim took over after his father’s death in 2011, according to South Korea intelligence reports.
In 2013, Kim executed his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, once considered the second most powerful man in the country, for damaging to the economy, along with a group of officials close to him.