US officials believe there was dissent over Kim Jong-un’s approach to foreign diplomacy
North Korea’s top three military officials have been removed from their posts, a senior US official said on Sunday, as a scheduled summit between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un neared in Singapore.
The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was commenting on a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that all three of the North’s top military officials were believed to have been replaced.
Trump on Friday revived the proposed 12 June summit after cancelling it a week earlier. The US is seeking a negotiated end to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
US officials believe there was some dissent in the military about Kim’s approaches to South Korea and the US.
The US official did not identify the three military officials. Yonhap identified them as defence chief Pak Yong-sik; chief of the Korean People’s Army’s (KPA) general staff, Ri Myong-su and Kim Jong-gak, the director of the KPA’s General Political Bureau.
Trump wants North Korea to “denuclearise,” meaning to get rid of its nuclear arsenal, in return for relief from economic sanctions.
