North Korean leader Kim Jong Un fired several senior government officials after a “grave incident” in the country’s efforts to fight the coronavirus, state media reported Wednesday.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, Kim Jong Un accused the officials for being ‘selfish and passive.’
Without specifying details of what had happened, the news agency reported that Kim told a politburo meeting how the officials “caused a grave incident that poses a huge crisis to the safety of the nation and its people”
Kim added that the “incompetence and irresponsibility of the senior officials are a major factor that hampers the implementation of important tasks”, adding that they were “captivated by selfishness and passivity”
North Korea closed its borders in January last year to defend itself against the pandemic that first emerged in neighboring China and said to have ravaged the impoverished nuclear-armed country which is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.
It has not publicly confirmed any cases of the disease at any point, neither in state media nor in the test statistics it has disclosed to the World Health Organization.
In April this year, the korean dictator sentenced a government official to death over ordering cheap hospital equipment from China.
New members of the presidium of the politburo -the highest decision-making body of the ruling Workers’ Party and the politburo were named at the meeting on Tuesday, KCNA reported, adding that “government officials were transferred and appointed”.
Its self-imposed and strictly enforced blockade has left North Korea more isolated than ever: trade with China -its economic lifeline slowed down while all international aid workers have left. The country is also struggling with food crisis.
This month, Pyongyang admitted it was tackling a food crisis, sounding the alarm in a nation with a deteriorating agricultural sector that has long struggled to feed itself.