Kim Jong-un executes high-ranking military officer for criticising his order to supply food to starving citizens

KIM Jong-un has executed a high-ranking military officer after he criticised the dictator’s order to supply food to North Korea’s starving people.

The major general in charge of the logistics headquarters of Training Camp 815 was court-martialed and shot on July 18, according to reports.

The man, who has not been identified, is said to have called Kim’s special order “unrealistic” and “an order ignorant of reality,” a source told Daily NK.

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.

According to the source, the notification was sent on July 22 and detailed recent examples of “stern judgements”.

The notification said after receiving the order from the ruling party, the commander “indiscreetly” complained that “military granaries are facing more serious problems than the food [shortage] issue facing the people.”

He also reportedly said: “If they’re going to squeeze us while remaining ignorant of the situation in lower-level rear areas, from where on earth are we going to produce all that rice, not sand from the river bed?”

Due to his criticism, he effectively became a “sectarian” in the eyes of the authorities, the report says.

It’s thought the authorities intend to spark fear by describing the events and emphasise “those who outright challenge party policy will receive no forgiveness, regardless of who they are.”

It is also believed officials in North Korea want to correct what they see has flagging military discipline, even if the rice stores are empty.

Kim is said to have learned just how bad things are with the stores of rice following the enlarged meeting of the politburo on June 29.

He is thought to have ordered the punishment of high-ranking cadres in charge, while simultaneously instructing the military’s Political Guidance Department and Military Security Command to inspect conditions in the low-level logistics units.

Kim purged dozens of officials in early July for their “disastrous failings” over the country’s famine.

Kim accused officials of "causing a grave incident that poses a huge crisis to the safety of the nation and its people", state news agency Korean Central News Agency said.

One of those officials axed was a member of the top standing committee of the politburo, which only has five members - including Kim himself.

There is also talk of a “bloodbath” of purges and sackings in the name of “drawing out the ideological poison of military sectarianism,” the report claims.

Hostility within the military though is said to be rising due to the seemingly merciless punishment.

Soldiers are reportedly questioning how “shooting logistics commanders and sending officers to political prison camps” will resolve the problem, and if leaders will label everyone as “sectarian” every time there is a problem.

The source claimed stores of military supplies “have been empty since the time of Kim Jong Il” and “it’s a bigger problem that the government is starting to get a grip on conditions on the ground only now, 10 years after Kim Jong Un took power.”

Kim’s current reign of terror has also extended to the country’s youth who now face the threat of jail or death if they adopt trendy foreign fashions, hairstyles or even use "street" words from neighbouring South Korea.

The crackdown is part of sweeping new laws aimed at crushing any kind of foreign influence in the isolated state.