North Korea's Kim sacks vice premier

Seoul, South Korea --- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against "incompetent" officials, state media said Tuesday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory.

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This picture taken and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 20, 2026 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivering a speech at the completion of the first phase of renovation and modernisation of the Ryongsong Machine Complex in South Hamgyong Province, North Korea. AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

(AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE)

Vice Premier Yang Sung Ho was sacked “on the spot”, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials”.

“Please, Comrade Vice Premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said.

“He is ineligible for an important duty,” he added.

“Put simply, it was like hitching a cart to a goat -- an accidental mistake in our cadre appointment process,” the North Korean leader explained.

“After all, it is an ox that pulls a cart, not a goat.”