North Korea's Kim Jong Un hints at more executions

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hinted at more executions within the top ranks of the Workers' Party and ordered officials to launch a "campaign against abuse of power, bureaucratism, irregularities and corruption" in the party.

In a new policy, adopted at a politboro meeting, Kim "underlined the need for the officials to devote their blood and sweat to solving knotty problems in the people's living and difficult problems of people, deeply aware of the noble intention of Kim Jong-un who is dedicating himself to the people," the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. The meeting was held as the three-year review of Kim's leadership after his father Kim Jong-Il died in 2011.

A resolution calls for "conducting the work for implementing the behests of Kim Jong il as the primary tasks and unconditionally carrying out them to the last without an inch of deflection and a single step of concession."

In the last year or so, more than 50 officials have been killed under Kim's orders for charges ranging from opposition to his rule to watching foreign soap operas. This includes his uncle Jang Song Thaek, who once served as the vice-chairman of the National Defense Commission, and the country's telecommunications minister and the head of the air force.