North Korea: Pyongyang exacts the highest price for failure

The record of high-ranking officials ‘purged’ by the eccentric megalomaniac leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, is continuing to grow as he tightens his grip on power, writes Paul French.

It appears that North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un is continuing to try to consolidate his power through his country’s time-honoured tradition of purging.

In 2013, Kim had Jang Song Thaek, his uncle and the country’s second-most powerful official, killed following suspicions that Jang was plotting a coup. In April, defence minister Hyon Yong Chol was reportedly executed (with an anti-aircraft gun) after falling asleep while Kim was delivering a speech.