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| Kim Jong-Un |
October 28, 2014: South Korea's Yonhap News agency reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had purged about 10 officials of his ruling Workers’ Party for watching South Korean soap operas. Yonhap did not specify how or when the action was taken.
North Korea has expanded prison camps and increased public executions, with about 50 people executed this year by firing squad, Yonhap said.
The alleged purge follows what Kim described as the removal of "Factionalist filth" in December 2013 when he executed his own uncle Jang Song Thaek and other prominent figures in the capital Pyongyang.
“Kim Jong-un is trying to establish absolute power and strengthen his regime with public punishments,” Yang Moo Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said by phone.
On 23 October 2014, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo had reported that six high-ranking officials had not attended important events for several weeks – prompting fears they have been killed. A well-informed source said an extensive purge took place in the North’s cabinet including the minister of post and telecommunication. “I received reliable intelligence that six minister-level officials were executed,” he told the JoongAng Ilbo.
The ministers feared to have been put to death on the orders of the North Korean dictator includes: Sim Chol-ho, the telecommunication minister; Ma Won-chun, a prominent architect and construction official; General Ri Pyong-chol; Chang Ung, a member of the International Olympic Committee; and Ri Yong-gil, chief of the General Staff of the North Korean People's Army.
Aidan Foster-Carter, an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology and Modern Korea at Leeds University, said JoongAng Ilbo is South Korea's most reputable daily paper, making reports of a purge more credible. He added: "Unlike too many western media sources on North Korea, its agenda is serious rather than tabloid. So a purge is plausible. At this stage I am reluctant to go further. Two months is not long to be absent – remember Kim Jong-un disappeared himself recently.”
Sources: JoongAng Ilbo, October 23, 2014; bloomberg.com, Hands Off Cain, October 28, 2014
