North Korea’s young heir apparent has launched a purge of senior party and military officials in an apparent attempt to cement his grip on power, a North Korean defectors’ group said yesterday.
Pyongyang this month began a crackdown on senior officials suspected of corruption, starting in Musan County in the northeastern province of North Hamkyong, the Seoul-based North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity said.
A spokesman said the information came from North Korean sources whom he described as senior party officials closely connected with the investigation.
“About 15 heavyweight officials, many of them military, are being investigated for turning a blind eye to people fleeing the country and being involved in smuggling activities,” the spokesman said.
He said the investigation was being led by Kim Jong-un, youngest son and chosen successor to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
The crackdown, which would be expanded into a nationwide campaign, was a “politically motivated purge” aimed at replacing longstanding military members with younger officials more loyal to Kim Jong-un, the spokesman said.
“This is a purge for generational change ... senior officials are trembling with fear because they don’t know where heads are going to roll,” he said.
Seoul’s intelligence agency declined to comment on the report. The Kim dynasty, which has ruled the country with an iron fist for more than six decades, has long used purges to maintain its grip on power.
Founding president Kim Il-sung reportedly executed hundreds of dissidents during the early years of his leadership and often persecuted senior officials showing signs of rebelliousness.
Kim Jong-il, after taking over from his father, is known to have executed several hundred soldiers for showing “suspicious movements,” yesterday’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported. Kim Jong-un, believed to be aged 27, was made a general and given powerful party posts at the country’s largest political gathering for 30 years in September.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese