Kim: Killing My Uncle Made Country Stronger

Country purged of 'factional filth,' he says
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 1, 2014 8:01 AM CST
Kim: Killing My Uncle Made Country Stronger
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers an annual New Year's Day message in Pyongyang.   (AP Photo/KRT via AP Video)

Happy new year, Pyongyang style: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hailed the execution of his uncle in his annual New Year message, saying moves to "eliminate factionalist filth" in the ruling party had boosted the country's unity a hundredfold, reports the BBC. The message was his first public comment on the purge, which South Korean intelligence officials suspect was sparked by a business dispute.

Kim also found time to denounce the US once again, though he stopped short of repeating his angry threats of early last year, CNN notes. "The US and South Korean war maniacs have deployed legions of equipment for a nuclear war in and around the Korean Peninsula and are going frantic in their military exercises for a nuclear war against the North," he said. "This precipitates a critical situation where any accidental military skirmish may lead to an all-out war." (More Kim Jong Un stories.)

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