North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech during the Seventh Party Congress. Kim reportedly expelled a drunk official during the four-day event held to consolidate his power. File Image screenshot of KCTV

SEOUL, May 25 (UPI) -- A tipsy senior North Korean official was expelled from Kim Jong Un's Seventh Party Congress after creating an uproar, according to a source in Pyongyang.

The official, currently under investigation, is the Pyongyang Railway Bureau's director and deputy political director, the source told South Korean news service Daily NK.


The official, who remains unidentified, began causing a disturbance while the party congress was in session and was expelled from the venue, the source said.

The source also said the director had "drunk too much vodka at the April 25 Hotel [in Pyongyang], then began causing trouble for colleagues staying there."

The official was expelled immediately from the April 25 House of Culture under direct orders from Kim Jong Un, the source said.

"Party congress representatives were probably fearful, and the scene probably evoked the 2013 Jang Sung Taek incident, which occurred at the Workers' Party Politburo meeting" that year, the source added.

North Korean officials have been acting carefully owing to the rise in purges and executions in the country, and anyone who is expelled from the party venue can be regarded as "ended," at least politically, the source said.

While the fate of the railway director remains unknown, it is probable his actions will not be taken lightly.

The source said one punishment that could be meted out to the offending official is "ideological reeducation" at a farm, a euphemism for a prison term of forced labor.

The party congress was a tool to consolidate Kim Jong Un's grip on power, and critics have said the event proved there was little change in the general direction of the country.

For ordinary North Koreans, the congress held little significance, according to multiple sources.