Kim Jong Un Warns North Korean Ruling Party Members Against ‘Whining’ And Having A Defeatist Attitude

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pulled up some members of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) for incompetence and having a defeatist attitude, NK News reported Monday. Kim made the remarks during a conference of the ruling party, held from Dec. 23 to Dec. 25.

“[There] are some units which memorize the party’s policies only by word and carry out works by pulling the wool over people’s eyes and taking shortcuts,” Kim said, adding that “the weak units” among the primary committees were “whining as if falling into the idea of defeatism.”

“The primary Party committees who are unable to implement the main revolutionary tasks given to them should seriously reflect on whether such a party committee is necessary for our Party and revolution,” the North Korean leader said, according to NK News.

Furthermore, Kim vowed to remove the administrative and bureaucratic leanings in order to “improve the party’s work in accordance with the requirements for development in the real world.”

“The parties of some countries who previously established socialist systems collapsed as they were abandoned by their people and drove socialism to ruin, and it’s significantly related to the prevalence of the ‘administrative bureaucratic tendencies’,” Kim told WPK members.

This follows a report by Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) Korean Service that said the isolated nation’s top officials were warned against forming cliques, triggering a fear of possible purge of high-ranking officials by Kim. The directive was given Dec. 9 to authorities in Ryanggang and Chagang provinces, in the northern part of the country that borders China.

“Kim could carry out a purge by mobilizing his Guard Command in a surprise attack while the military’s leaders are feeling at ease,” a source with ties to the North’s military told RFA. “Honestly, there is no place on Earth where corruption is worse than in North Korea’s military. And the fact that Kim Jong Un did not directly mention this is making the commanders even more anxious and afraid.”

North Korea, one of the world’s most reclusive countries, has seen several high-level purges under the young leader’s rule after he took over the power in 2011 following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il. However, several reports of purges and executions in the country later turned out to be false.