The latest rumor from North Korea: Another general executed


Yet another North Korean general is killed by the Pyongyang regime. That’s the story that’s been doing the rounds this week after a South Korean news agency quoted an anonymous South Korean official from an unnamed South Korean agency as saying that Ri Yong Gil, chief of the Korean People’s Army [KPA] general staff, had been executed for corruption.


 It fits with the pattern that has emerged since Kim Jong Un took over the leadership of North Korea from his father at the end of 2011: Aging members of the old guard dispatched by young upstart leader. After all, it happened with Hyon Yong Chol, the defense minister executed by anti-aircraft gun for insubordination and treason.