‘The trouble for Kim began after he was seen sitting with bad attitude during a meeting of the People’s Supreme Assembly, ‘ the official told South Korean newspaper JoongAng Daily.
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Ri Yong Jin, a senior official in the education ministry – possibly the minister – was arrested for dozing off during a meeting with Kim and charged with corruption before being killed, the paper said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un keeps brutally asserting his hold on power with purges of the upper echelons, the government here confirmed Wednesday.
Jeong Joon Hee, a spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, said that the South Korean government had used various means to confirm the execution of Kim Yong Jin, the deputy premier.
Jeong did not give details on why, where, and when the execution took place.
The slouching vice premier was interrogated and found to be an “anti-revolutionary agitator” before his execution in July, a South Korean official said.
These officials were Hwang Min and Ri Yong Jin, The Guardian said, citing information from the JoongAng Ilbo.
A source said it is usually hard to independently verify news about top officials in the country or the inner circle around the leader.
Kim Jong-Un, believed to be his early 30s, is revered at the center of an intense cult of personality at home, with state TV showing aging senior officials kowtowing and kneeling down before him.
In July previous year, South Korean officials said Kim had executed about 70 officials since taking power in late 2011.
The 62-year-old Choe Hwi, a vice department director of the ruling party’s central committee, has also been undergoing re-education in a rural area since late May over his mishandling of the party’s work on agitation and promotion, the official added.
Kim Yong Jin, second from left, a vice premier on education affairs in North Korea’s cabinet pictured with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Defectors have regularly spoken of public executions in an authoritarian state ruled by the Kim family since being founded following Korea’s division in the wake of World War II.
Kim Yong Chol, 71, was sent to a farm in mid-July after being accused of abusing his power, the official said. He was blamed by the South for the sinking of a South Korean warship in 2010 near the disputed sea border with the North in the Yellow Sea.
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Why are we hearing about this now?
