Kim Jong-un purges his top military aides for ‘impure attitude’

One of Kim Jong-un’s top aides has been purged in a power struggle between civilian party chiefs and the Korean People’s Army.

Hwang Pyong So, left, stands with Kim Jong Un, second from right, and North Korean Premier Pak Pong Ju. Picture: AP.

One of Kim Jong-un’s top aides has been purged in a power struggle between civilian party chiefs and the Korean People’s Army.

Hwang Pyong-so, head of the army’s powerful General Political Bureau, and his deputy have been punished for an “impure attitude” toward the ruling Korean Workers’ Party, according to South Korea’s spy agency.

If the sackings are confirmed they will represent the latest in a purge of senior officials by the North Korean leader.

The exact fate of Mr Hwang and Kim Won-hong is not clear but the language used by the National Intelligence Service (NIS), which briefed South Korean MPs yesterday, suggests that they have been demoted or sent for re-education rather than executed.

The “inspection” of the General Political Bureau is being carried out by Choe Ryong-hae, a senior aide to Mr Kim who was himself purged only to later make a comeback. It appears to be an act of revenge on those who brought about his fall from favour two years ago, and a reassertion of power by party supremos over their rivals in the army.

Kim Jong-un with Hwang Pyong-So at a meeting of military and political cadres. Picture: AFP.

“Under Choe’s command the Organisation and Guidance Department is undertaking an inspection of the General Political Bureau for the first time in 20 years, challenging their impure attitude toward the party leadership,” Kim Byung-kee, a South Korean MP, told journalists after attending the briefing by the NIS on Monday.

The spy chiefs also said that they expected North Korea to carry out further missile tests before the end of the year, and that a seventh underground nuclear test was also possible.

“While there has not been any imminent sign of conducting nuclear tests at the Punggye-ri test site, the NIS regards it as a possibility at any time, whenever Kim Jong-un makes the decision,” Yi Wan-young, another MP and member of the intelligence committee of the South Korean National Assembly, said. Mr Kim has seen off scores of cadres, of high and lower rank, since succeeding his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011. Choe Yong-gon, a deputy prime minister, is believed to have been shot dead in May 2015 after opposing Mr Kim’s forestry policies.

The previous month Hyon Yong-chol, the defence minister, was said to have been shot to pieces with an anti-aircraft gun for crimes including falling asleep in the supreme leader’s presence.

In 2013 Kim had his uncle, Chang Sung-thaek, killed after he allegedly confessed to a coup plot. The following year the unnamed head of a terrapin farm was put before a firing squad after electricity failures led to the deaths of a large number of the creatures.

Other senior figures have suffered lesser punishments from which they have been allowed to return, and this may prove to be the fate of the two men purged from the army politburo.

Mr Hwang used to be regarded as Kim’s No 2. Kim Won-hong, his deputy, was sacked from his job as minister of state security in January for alleged abuse of power, having just returned to high office.

Mr Choe was sent to work on a collective farm as part of a program of “re-education” in 2015. At the time the NIS reported that he had been blamed for the collapse of a tunnel during the construction of a power station.

The Times