The employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea was executed for the fact that he could not provide the procurement of medical equipment from Europe. This was reported to the South Korean edition of Daily NK, the Tabloid The Mirror drew attention to the material.
According to a high-ranking source, procurement is associated with a general hospital in Pyongyang, which requires faster to open and high-qualityly equip the leader of the DPRK Kim Chen Yun. It should have been commissioned in autumn 2020, but it was not done so far.
As noted, at the end of March, Kimu reported the legacy preparation of the import of medical equipment from China. Deliveries were planned to start from the end of April, and fully close the contract until the end of the year. This led the North Korean leader to rage, as he gave a decree to establish first-class medical equipment in the hospital, which was produced in Europe, including Germany.
Daily NK notes that Kim, in his youth received education abroad, believes European medical institutions as the best, and therefore the batch has allocated a large budget. However, in fact, getting equipment from Europe was not so simple: first, the Coronavirus pandemic prevented transporting to Asia, and secondly, it was necessary to find a way to bring it to North Korea, despite the sanctions.
At the same time, a strong perturbation of the country’s leader caused not the purchases themselves in China, and the fact that the contract was signed without his knowledge and approval. As a result, a 50-year-old employee who answered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for imports and export was executed. In addition, one of the high-ranking officers of the country’s Ministry of Health was fired. The publication notes that the supply was most likely approved by the higher management of the departments, but the middle-level staff took full responsibility.
The death penalty is not uncommon in North Korea. Earlier in April, it was reported that the North Korean official was executed due to complaints and slow work. In February, it became known that the authorities tightened the punishment for the importation and distribution of South Korean video materials – now for it may threaten the death penalty. The maximum prison term for viewing video from South Korea was also increased.