Kim tightens discipline, calls for officials to root out ‘unrevolutionary acts’

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for officials to root out “unrevolutionary acts” such as bureaucratic behavior in a party meeting, Pyongyang’s state media said Monday, a day after North Korea fired artillery into the West Sea.

Pyongyang’s state-operated Korean Central News Agency said Kim presided over a secretariat meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party on Sunday to discuss national tasks that were decided upon at a key party meeting last week.

“(Kim) discussed party and government projects as well as ways to improve the roles of party organizations and issued related orders,” the KCNA said.

The officials also discussed ways to tighten discipline, and urged to fight against “unhealthy and unrevolutionary acts,” including bureaucratic and influence-seeking behavior from some party members, the news outlet added.

At the fifth enlarged plenary meeting of the party’s eighth Central Committee held from Wednesday to Friday, the North Korean leader had called for stronger self-defense measures to tackle “very serious” security challenges.

There, Kim reiterated the principle that the party should match challenges head on, strength-for-strength, and stressed the importance of strengthening national defense capabilities.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Monday that the North appears to be tightening internal discipline to reinforce the party’s position as the control tower in carrying out national tasks.

Pyongyang’s Sunday meeting reportedly took place on the same day that the North fired a multiple rocket launcher on the west coast at 8:07 a.m. and 11:03 a.m. on Sunday morning.

South Korea’s presidential office said it held a National Security Office meeting, following the launch to check the military’s readiness posture.

According to the office, the participants at the meeting, including first deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo, expressed concerns about the North’s continuing development of weapons systems, which pose a direct threat to the South.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)