Kim Jong-un Convenes Rare Joint Meeting, Publicly Purges Senior Military Official for Corruption

KCNA reported North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over a rare joint meeting of senior party, government and military officials in Pyongyang — the first such assembly Kim has summoned since taking power in 2011 — at which Pak Hui-chol, deputy director of the Korean People's Army General Political Bureau's Organization Department, was publicly condemned and punished for bribery, embezzlement, abuse of power and selling official military and government positions during his tenure. Kim called the offenses 'extra-large crimes.' Analysts said the unusually public handling of the case, in contrast to North Korea's typically secretive elite discipline, signals both a campaign to root out entrenched military corruption and a warning to other senior officials against factionalism.