This picture taken on January 19, 2026 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 20, 2026 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) inspecting the Ryongsong Machine Complex in South Hamgyong Province. STR / AFP
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has fired a senior official tasked with economic policy and condemned "incompetent" apparatchiks for delays in the opening of an important factory, state media said Tuesday, January 20. Nuclear-armed North Korea, which is under multiple sets of sanctions over its weapons programs, has long struggled with its moribund state-managed economy and chronic food shortages.
Touring the opening of an industrial machinery complex on Monday, Kim blasted officials whom he blamed for delays in the project, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
"Owing to the irresponsible, rude and incompetent economic guidance officials, the first-stage modernization project of the Ryongsong Machine Complex encountered difficulties," Kim said. And he slammed cadres who for "too long been accustomed to defeatism, irresponsibility and passiveness."
He fired Vice Premier of the Cabinet Yang Sung Ho "on the spot," KCNA said.
