The Sun
BOOZEHOUND Kim Jong-Un has reportedly called on Washington to lift “crippling” sanctions on “high-class” alcohol and luxury suits as his people continue to starve.
The demands come as the secretive state continues to battle a severe food shortage that has been worsened by devastating storms and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Park Jie-won, head of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, said that Pyongyang wants sanctions to be lifted before restarting nuclear denuclearization talks with the US.
He said: “North Korea argues that the US should allow mineral exports and imports of refined oil and necessities.
“I asked which necessities they want and they said high-class liquors and suits were included, not just for Kim Jong Un’s own consumption but to distribute to Pyongyang’s elite.”
North Korea’s state-run media made no mention on Tuesday of any new request for the lifting sanctions to restart talks.
Washington has given no indication of a willingness to ease sanctions ahead of any talks, according to Reuters.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned to call on Southeast Asian nations this week to fully implement sanctions on North Korea.
Spokesperson Ned Price reiterated that Washington was prepared to meet North Korea “anytime, anywhere, without preconditions” but there had been no response.
‘IGNORANT OF REALITY’
Another State Department spokesperson said: “In the meantime, in the absence of any type of engagements, United Nations sanctions on (North Korea) remain in place and we will continue to enforce them along with the international community.”
The demands come after it was reported that Kim executed a high-ranking military official after he allegedly criticized the dictator’s order to supply food to starving North Koreans.
The major general in charge of the logistics headquarters of Training Camp 815 was court-martialed and shot on July 18, according to DailyNK.
He is said to have called Kim’s special order “unrealistic” and branded it “an order ignorant of reality,”
Kim’s order called for the military stores of rice to be released for distribution to the public with the country said to be in a famine.
People learned of the execution following a “notification” from the authorities to military officers ranked department head and above.
The notification said after receiving the order, the commander “indiscreetly” complained that “military granaries are facing more serious problems than the food [shortage] issue facing the people.”
Kim purged dozens of officials in early July for their “disastrous failings” over the country’s famine.
The dictator accused officials of “causing a grave incident that poses a huge crisis to the safety of the nation and its people”.
One of those officials axed was a member of the top standing committee of the politburo, which only has five members – including Kim himself.
Kim admitted that the crisis in the agricultural sector was “getting tense”.
It’s reported that citizens in the isolated state are paying triple the price for potatoes and a packet of coffee could cost up to $100, according to CNN.
In April, Kim urged North Koreans to take an “arduous march” – a term used during the 1990s famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
This story first appeared in The Sun
