Jeong Joon-hee, a spokesman for Seoul’s Unification Ministry, told reporters Wednesday that Kim Yong Jin, a vice premier in North Korea’s Cabinet, had been executed.
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Kim Yong Chol was banished to an agricultural farm in July for a month for his “arrogance” and “abuse of power”, the ministry official said.
The leadership of Kim Jong-Un is leading to a reign of terror as more executions and punishments are incurring from his wrath.
Kim was branded “anti-party and a counter-revolutionary member” by the country’s State Security Department, after he exercised a “bad attitude” during North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly in June, the official said. Ri was arrested and questioned and was executed after offenses such as corruption were discovered, the source said, according to the JoongAng Ilbo.
Mr. Kim will be one of the highest-ranking officials to be executed since 2013.
According to the reports that said by the officials to media, “Kim Yong-Jin was criticized for his very bad sitting posture on the platform during an assembly of parliament of North Korea and then went through a questioning session that exposed others”.
The Associated Press, however, noted that South Korea that has several intelligence organizations mostly spying on North Korea has a mixed track record for news from the secretive country.
If reports of Kim Yong Jin’s execution are accurate, it could signal that Kim Jong Un is taking a tougher stance on those at the top of his fragile authoritarian regime.
The reports of these executions could not be verified and South Korea’s Unification Ministry – which usually handles North Korea-related matters – has not commented, Sky News reported. In May 2015, North Korea’s defense minister, Hyon Yong-chol, was assassinated by airstrike after being accused of treason.
Meanwhile, The Guardian noted that there has been a rise in executions in North Korea since Kim Jong-Un came to power in 2011.
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A former defence minister, Hyun Yong Chol, is also believed to have been executed previous year for treason, according to the South’s spy agency.
