North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves to people attending a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of country's founding father, Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, April 15, 2017. (Reuters)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly ordered a high ranking army officer to be executed after he was accused of giving extra food and fuel rations to troops and their families.
Daily NK reported that Hyon Ju Song, the lieutenant general of the Korean People’s Army in the country’s capital, Pyongyang, was executed by a firing squad for “charges of abusing authority and engaging in anti-Party acts.”
Hyon was reportedly a rising star in the army before his death. He served as a member of the Workers' Party of Korea's Central Committee and battalion commander under the Supreme Guard Command.
“While checking the oil supplies for the Sohae Satellite Launching Station during the comprehensive inspections of wartime supplies on April 10, Hyon stated, ‘We no longer have to suffer and tighten our belts to make rockets or nuclear weapons.’ This was seen as an abuse of authority and a treasonous statement that opposed the Party’s military-first policy,” a source told Daily NK.
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The source said Hyon ordered “2,000 pounds of fuel, 1,300 pounds of rice, and 1,600 pounds of corn to military officers at the Launching Station and their families.”
“This was considered an anti-Party act violating the Ten Principles for the Establishment of the Party’s One-Ideology System,” the source said.
The officer was also accused of “failing to maintain secrecy regarding the affairs of the Party, military, and government institutions, displaying generosity by distributing unauthorized handouts, and misrepresenting the ideology of the Party,” the source said.
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A different source told Daily NK that Kim was infuriated when he heard of the reports and ordered the officer’s execution. Hyon was placed on trial before he was brought in front of the firing squad, the source said.
“The ideological poisoning that is personal idolization is corrupting the chief personnel in the People’s Army. We must nip the bud of ideological poisoning,” the source quoted Kim as saying.