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.
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“I have the information that ministers of agriculture and education were publicly executed on a special order from Kim Jong Un”, said the source.
This is the first time Kim Jong-un ordered the execution of people who don’t belong to his Worker’s Party or the military.
Little is known about Kim Yong Jin, who was last mentioned by North Korea’s state news agency on June 15 when it reported he attended an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s taekwondo federation.
“He was arrested on-site and intensively questioned by the state security ministry”, the paper claimed. He was found guilty of treason and other crimes against North Korea.
Kim has carried out a series of executions since taking power in 2011 after his father’s death as he puts his mark on the leadership of the isolated nuclear-armed nation.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry – which looks after North Korea-related matters – is yet to comment. There have also been reports of the Kim clan, which has ruled North Korea with an iron fist since 1945, using flame throwers and mortars to eliminate its opponents, although it is hard to confirm all such claims.
It is hard to independently verify news about top officials in the North or the inner circle around the leader. Vice premier Kim Yong-jin was executed and UFD director Kim Yong-chol was sent for revolutionary re-education. Twelve waitresses and their manager who had been working at a North Korea-themed restaurant in China also made headlines when they arrived in the South in April as the largest group defection for years.
Hyun Yong Chol, a former defence minister, was executed a year ago for treason, according to the South’s spy agency.
Seoul’s spy agency reported that a North Korean military chief had been executed in May, but later, the government learned he was alive, well and had been promoted.
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North Korea’s deputy ambassador to Britain has defected to the South with his family, the unification ministry said earlier this month.
