“One of the executed is Hwang Min, a former agricultural minister”, said the source.
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Another Official said that the education official’s poor posture was spotted at a meeting on June 29, when Kim Jong-un was named chairman of a new national defence department.
If confirmed, theirs would be the latest in a series of killings, purges, and dismissals that have been carried out since Kim Jong Un came into power in late 2011. Ri is said to have been killed for falling asleep in a Kim-chaired meeting. The state security ministry questioned Mr. Kim, rather intensely, which was then followed by execution.
As CNN reports, “executions are widely considered a political tool for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to consolidate his hold on power”.
Two other top officials were banished and sent for “reeducation”, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said, apparently based on information from sources in the North.
“The trouble for [Kim Yong-Jin] began after he was seen sitting with bad attitude during a meeting of the People’s Supreme Assembly”, said a South Korean official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Rival South Korea, which runs several intelligence organizations mainly tasked with spying on North Korea, has a mixed record on reporting developments in the country.
This report from North Korea comes via the Wall Street Journal, which says the capital charge formally leveled against the 63-year-old Vice Premier involved “being an anti-revolutionary element”. It rarely announces purges or executions and it is hard to independently verify news about top officials in the North or the inner circle around the leader.
This undated picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on August 25, 2016 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) laughing as he inspects a test-fire of strategic submarine-launched ballistic missile at an undisclosed location.
North Korea’s deputy ambassador to Britain has defected to the South with his family, the unification ministry said earlier this month.
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In April past year, Hyon Yong-chol, a former Defence Chief, was executed after falling asleep during a military rally attended by Kim.
