Kim Jong-un sacks top North Korean officials in wake of border stand-off with South
The move by the North Korean leader's suggests the officials were punished causing the tense confrontation
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has dismissed top officials in the wake of a recent stand-off with South Korea, state media reported on Friday, a move that suggests the young leader holds them responsible for allowing the confrontation to nearly spin out of control.
Seoul responded by resuming propaganda broadcasts critical of Kim’s authoritarian rule for the first time in 11 years. Pyongyang then threatened to destroy the South Korean loudspeakers, and Seoul says the rivals exchanged artillery fire at the border.
During a ruling Workers’ Party meeting, Kim hailed the agreement, which came after marathon talks, as a “crucial landmark” that put “catastrophic” inter-Korean relations back on track toward reconciliation, according to Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency.
Kim also dismissed an unspecified number of members of the party’s Central Military Commission, which handled the stand-off, a KCNA dispatch said.
It gave no reasons for the dismissals, but outside analysts said they might have been sacked because they misjudged South Korea’s strong response to the mine blasts.
