THE vice-premier for education in North Korea has been executed, and two other officials have been banished for re-education in the rural areas, said South Korea on Wednesday.
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Mr Kim took power in 2011 after the death of his father Kim Jong Il, and his consolidation of power has included purges and executions of top officials, Seoul officials said.
“Vice premier for education Kim Yong-jin was executed”, Seoul’s unification ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee told reporters at a regular press briefing.
Ri Yong Jin, a senior official at the education ministry, was sentenced to death after he fell asleep in a meeting being addressed by Kim.
The administration additionally exiled two other senior authorities, Seoul said, the most recent in a significant number of disciplines Kim is accepted to have requested in what examiners say is an endeavor to fix his hold on force.
Kim Yong Chol, 71, was sent to a farm in mid-July after being accused of abusing his power, the official said. He was condemned for committing “anti-party, anti-revolutionary” acts. The secretary of the North’s Propaganda and Agitation Department, Choe Hwi, was also sent away for re-education in May, as punishment for mishandling of the regime’s propaganda activities.
The executions may have also been carried out to scare North Korea’s high-ranking officials.
According to the South-Korean Officials, Kim Jong-un was in the government meeting and was infuriated after Kim Yong-Jin sat in his chair “with a bad attitude”.
The daily quoted the source as saying Hwang was executed over a policy proposal that represented a direct challenge to the Kim regime.
In July a year ago, South Korean officials said Kim had executed about 70 officials since taking power in late 2011.
North Korea executes officials with anti-aircraft gun. 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.
State news agency KCNA had announced that Jang admitted to attempting to overthrow the government and was therefore executed.
The U.S. State Department ranks North Korea as one of the worst human rights abusers in the world.
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Earlier this month, Thae Yong Ho, the deputy to North Korea’s ambassador to Britain, defected with his family from London to South Korea.
