By Lee Ji-eun
It has been claimed that North Korean military stars have been executed by mortar fire at the order of the new young leader, Kim Jong-un.
“From shortly after Kim was enthroned as top commander of the North in late December last year when the mourning period of his father Kim Jong-il ended, stars (generals) disappeared when morning comes every day,” Free North Korea Radio (FNKR) quoted a well-informed government official as saying. “The number of purged stars are two digits when intelligence from last month is analyzed.
FNKR is a short wave radio broadcaster operated by North Korean defectors to inform their compatriots in the North about the democratic society in the South.
The official claimed that such a purge was made at the directive of Kim “to kill all the guys who behaved strangely during the mourning period of the general (Kim Jong-il).”
He also claimed that the vice minister of the people’s armed forces was executed by mortar fire in an open location in the same directive of the young leader Kim “to leave no trace, even a single hair.” Earlier, the vice minister was said to have been shot dead before the public for drinking during the mourning period for Kim Jong-il.
The official said a squad fired mortars at a site where the vice minister was standing. Among the stars purged like this was a commander of an army corps, the radio reported.
The source said there is also intelligence that the commander of the 9th Army Corps stationed in Cheongjin, North Hamgyeong Province, was executed for sexually harassing a woman during the mourning period.
“The military lacking loyalty seemed to trigger a complex in the junior Kim in his late 20s,” said the source. He cited Kim Jeong-gak, deputy director-general of the General Political Bureau, who is a close aide to Kim, as a figure who suggested the executions in this manner.
Kim Jong-il also executed those who committed misdemeanors, ordering, “Make guns sound large across the country,” in 1998, when he took power.
The junior Kim’s behavior could be far crueler than his father if what the North Korea source said is true, according to a North Korea expert.