South Korea says a high-ranking North Korean government official has been executed, and two more banished to re-education camps, as leader Kim Jong Un continues to tighten his grip on power.
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According to a report in the Daily Mail, Ri Yong Jin, a member of the education ministry, was given death sentence after he fell asleep during a meeting addressed by Kim.
“He was arrested on-site and intensively questioned by the state security ministry”, the paper claimed. The execution was carried out on charges of factionalism, corruption as well as plotting to overthrow the government.
It is believed they were executed earlier this month, and is the latest in a series of high-level purges under the young leader’s rule.
The South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported this morning (Tuesday) that Min and Yong Jin were executed this month at a military academy in Pyongyang using an anti-aircraft weapon.
Jeong said that Kim Yong Chol, the influential Head of the North’s United Front Department, which handles inter-Korean relations, was made to undergo “revolutionary measures”. Kim Yong-chol is known as a leading hardliner against the South, and is also believed to have masterminded the torpedo attack on the warship Cheonan back in 2010.
“At that meeting, Jong-un, was named chairman of the newly created State Affairs Commission, which supplanted the National Defense Commission”.
Ri Yong-jin is not the first official to be killed by AA guns for falling asleep – a year ago South Korea’s spy agency said it had “credible information” that People’s Armed Forces Minister Hyon Yong Chol met the same fate.
South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo cited a source with inside knowledge of North Korea.
There have been reports of North Korea executions by antiaircraft gun before.
The last confirmed execution in the country was of Kim Jong-un’s own uncle, Jang Song-thaek, in December 2013.
It noted that the news of the reclusive state’s new purges came shortly after the South Kores, disclosed that the North Korea’s deputy ambassador in London had defected and arrived in the country with his family.
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David Kang, a professor of worldwide relations at the University of Southern California, told CNN: “It is another way for Kim Jong Un to show he is in power”.
