Another defence chief executed by dictator Kim
KIM Jong-Un’s fourth defence chief in four years was unveiled yesterday as the North Korean tyrant reportedly had his previous commander killed in yet another bloodthirsty purge.
New army head Ri Myong-Su is one of his top three aides and a rocket technology expert. The secretive state recently carried out its fourth nuclear bomb test.
Ri Yong- Gil – the communist country’s third army head since Kim, 33, took power in 2011 – was accused of forming a ‘political faction’ and corruption. Scores of top brass and party aides are said to have been put to death in increasingly bizarre and barbaric ways as Kim squashes dissent.
Defence chief Hyon Yong-Chol was reportedly blown up by an anti-aircraft gun in front of hundreds of onlookers last May.
Reports – not all confirmed – of senior regime officials vanishing have become common since Kim took over when his father Kim Jong-Il died in December 2011.
Many were removed or demoted as the young leader sought total control over Pyongyang’s huge armed forces. Kim even had his influential uncle Jang SongThaek executed in December 2013 for treason and corruption.
State media the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed Ri Myong-Su was now in charge as it called the ex-security minister ‘chief of the Korean People’s Army General Staff ’ during manoeuvres guided by Kim.
Professor Yang Moo- Jin, a North Korea specialist in the South capital Seoul, called him a missile expert. Kim’s nuclear test and recent rocket launch sparked global condemnation amid fears he is trying to build a nucleararmed missile to hit the US.