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'N. Korean military chief executed on corruption charges,' say sources

'N. Korean military chief executed on corruption charges,' say sources

Posted February. 11, 2016 07:37,   

Updated February. 11, 2016 07:45

한국어
The chief of North Korea's military was executed early this month, sources on North Korea said Wednesday amid speculations of his purge following his absence from a series of major events in the communist state.

Multiple sources on North Korea said Army General Ri Yong Gil, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, was executed recently on charges of pursuing personal gains. According to the sources, Ri was executed last week around the time North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a joint meeting of the North's ruling Korean Workers' Party and the military. Lee was absent at the meeting.

Former field commander and the commander of the Third Corps of the North Korean military overseeing Nampo and its surrounding areas, Ri was appointed to the top military post in 2013. Winning Kim's favor in 2014, he was appointed as a candidate member of the party's powerful politburo. North Korean media showed him accompanying Kim on various inspection trips to military exercises and other places until early January this year. Ri has been "missing," however, since his name was last mentioned by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency on January 10.



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