N. Korea executes Army chief of staff
Seoul, Feb. 10: North Korea’s Army chief of staff has been executed, South Korean media reported on Wednesday, in what would amount to the latest in a series of purges and executions of top officials by leader Kim Jongun.
Ri Yong- gil, chief of the Korean People’s Army ( KPA) General Staff was executed earlier in February for forming a political faction and corruption, Yonhap news agency said, citing a source familiar with North Korean affairs.
The report came at a time of highly elevated tensions on the divided Korean peninsula following the North’s recent nuclear test and longrange rocket launch.
Ri was often seen accompanying Kim Jong- un on inspection tours, but his name was conspicuously missing from state media reports of a recent major party meeting and celebrations over Sunday’s rocket launch.
“The execution... Suggests that Kim Jong- un still feels insecure about his grip on the country’s powerful military,” Yonhap quoted the source as saying. “It shows that Kim’s reign of terror still persists,” the source was quoted as saying.
The National Intelligence Service ( NIS) in Seoul declined to comment on the report.
In May 2015, the NIS said Mr Kim had his defence chief, Hyon Yong- chol, executed
— reportedly with the use of an anti- aircraft gun.
Hyon’s fate was never confirmed by Pyongyang but he has never been seen or heard of since. Some analysts have suggested he was purged and imprisoned.
Reports — some confirmed, some not — of purges, executions and disappearances have been common since Mr Kim took power following the death of his father Kim Jong- il in December 2011.
— AFP