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Kim Jong Un Purges 10 Officials for Watching Soap Operas: Report

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (L) sits with China's Vice President Li Yuanchao (R) during a military parade at Kim Il-Sung square marking the 60th anniversary of the Korean war armistice in Pyongyang on July 27, 2013.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (L) sits with China's Vice President Li Yuanchao (R) during a military parade at Kim Il-Sung square marking the 60th anniversary of the Korean war armistice in Pyongyang on July 27, 2013.

Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
Sam Kim
Updated on

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is seeking to erase the remaining influence of his dead uncle, executing about 10 senior Workers’ Party officials on charges from graft to watching South Korean soap operas, according to an aide to a South Korean lawmaker.

The deaths by shooting are part of Kim’s latest round of purges, said Lim Dae Sung, a secretary to ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker Lee Cheol Woo who attended a briefing at the National Intelligence Service yesterday in Seoul. Kim had Jang Song Thaek, his uncle and de facto deputy, killed in December last year. Lee didn’t say when the executions took place, or who the officials were.