North Korea replaces senior military officials at party meeting

Seoul, May 30
North Korea has replaced senior military officials, including directors of the armed forces' artillery and security bureau, during a meeting of the ruling party's central military commission, state media reported on Friday.

Guided by leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea held the eighth enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported quoting the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The meeting came after a new North Korean warship partly capsized during its launch on May 21, a serious accident that the North's leader witnessed and slammed as an intolerable "criminal act."

The commission "newly appointed six commanding officers of corps-level units, the director of the Artillery Bureau and the director of the Security Bureau and newly dispatched some political commissars," the KCNA said, without disclosing other details.

North Korea said the meeting discussed ways to more firmly establish the "steel-like discipline system" of the country's armed forces organs and exercise "tight control and guidance" on the military.

At the meeting, North Korea decided on "military measures to firmly maintain the strategic and tactical superiority" and approved a series of new projects in the Defence science and industry sectors, without revealing other details.

The North's meeting appears to be intended to tighten the military's discipline following the recent warship accident occurring during the launch.

Kim ordered the restoration of the warship to be "completed unconditionally" before a plenary meeting of the WPK's meeting set for June.

As part of an investigation into the warship accident, North Korea has detained some officials, including the vice director of the party's munitions industry department.

Meanwhile, Russia had provided North Korea with its air defence system, electronic warfare jamming devices and other military support since late last year, in blatant violations of UN sanctions amid their deepening ties, an international monitoring report released by Seoul's Foreign Ministry showed on Thursday.

Since November 2024, Moscow has transferred at least one Pantsir mobile air defence system and one Pantsir-class combat vehicle to Pyongyang, the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) said in its first report on the sanctions enforcement.

The MSMT was established in October last year with the initiative of South Korea and the United States as an alternative framework to the UN Panel of Experts on North Korean sanctions monitoring.