North Korea’s President Kim Jong Un has dismissed the country’s Vice Premier, strongly criticizing what he described as “incompetent” officials.
He made this rare and public rebuke of officials during the inauguration of an important factory. The information was reported on Tuesday by the country’s state media.
The news was carried by the AFP news agency.
According to the state news agency KCNA, Vice Premier Yang Sung Ho was “dismissed on the spot.” Kim criticized “irresponsible, arrogant, and incompetent senior officials.”
Nuclear-armed North Korea, which is subject to multiple sanctions over its weapons programs, has long been struggling with a stagnant state-run economy and a prolonged food crisis.
Although Kim often moves swiftly to reprimand idle officials for the alleged mismanagement of economic policies, such public dismissals are very rare.
On Monday, while attending the inauguration ceremony of an industrial machinery complex, Kim sharply criticized officials who he said had become “accustomed to long-standing irresponsibility and inertia.”
Kim stated that Yang was “unfit to carry out important responsibilities.”
He called for rapid changes to revive the lagging economy and urged the building of a modern and advanced economy capable of firmly securing the country’s future.
