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North Korea’s Kim fires warning shot at own military with corruption purge

North Korea rarely airs its dirty laundry in public, but Kim Jong-un’s latest purge of a senior military official was staged for maximum visibility –…

By Samantha Johnson / July 13, 2026
North Korea rarely airs its dirty laundry in public, but Kim Jong-un’s latest purge of a senior military official was staged for maximum visibility – a warning, analysts say, to generals growing too comfortable with their expanding economic power that they answer to him alone.

“Kim is effectively telling military and party leaders: ‘Don’t even think about it. You are under round-the-clock surveillance,’” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

On Friday, Kim convened a rare joint meeting of the party, state and military – the first of its kind devoted specifically to corruption among senior officials, according to observers – to denounce former major general Pak Hui-chol in unusually public terms.

Pak was, until recently, deputy director for organisational affairs in the Korean People’s Army General Political Bureau, a powerful institution tasked with enforcing ideological conformity, loyalty and ensuring the military stays subordinate to the Workers’ Party through an extensive network of political commissars and instructors.

Kim Jong-un presides over a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Military Commission in Pyongyang on Thursday. Photo: KCNA/KNS/AFP
Kim Jong-un presides over a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Military Commission in Pyongyang on Thursday. Photo: KCNA/KNS/AFP

He was accused of running a four-year scheme that sold promotions, extracted bribes and filled key military posts with loyalists, all while embezzling state funds.

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