North Korea’s Kim Jails, Executes Opponents of Peace Process

A week ahead of the next summit with President Trump, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is reported to have removed some 50 to 70 people who were overwhelmingly hawks seen as resistant to the diplomatic process.

According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, these people are being targeted under a new anti-corruption initiative, but are being singled out as hawks. Some are being jailed, others exiled, and still others are being executed outright.

This collection of officials were seen to have been amassing power within the government, and some had used those positions to stock away some illegally acquired wealth. The money being confiscated in the purge in also shoring up North Korea’s economy in the immediate term.

In the long-term, the gains are less about money confiscated, which reports concede were only large “on a North Korean scale,” and that Kim is rid of a lot of the opponents of diplomacy. This should ensure that his position is supported across top positions.