Senior North Korean Military Official Expelled for Bribery, Kim Jong Un Furious

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has condemned alleged corruption by a senior military official who was expelled from the ruling party for accepting bribes. An angered Kim labelled it a ‘political crime’. Kim made the comments at a joint meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the military in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Friday, the state-run KCNA news agency reported. The meeting addressed corruption involving Pak Hui Chol, a former deputy director responsible for organisational affairs at the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army, and his followers, according to the KCNA report. Pak had received ‘a large amount of bribes’ and led ‘a lavish life,’ KCNA stated. The ruling party expelled him from the central leadership body and handed him over to law enforcement. ‘This is a political crime against the Party’s line on building discipline and an act of deliberate embezzlement and plundering that harms the interests of the state and the people,’ Kim was quoted as saying in his speech. Such a high-level public rebuke of a senior official, particularly by the supreme leader, is rare in North Korea’s authoritarian and opaque system of governance. The punishment the corrupt official will face remains unknown.