The South’s spy agency said a former Defence Minister, Hyun Chol, is also believed to have been executed a year ago for treason.
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“We have seen the press reports regarding the execution of North Korean officials”.
Kim Yong Jin, second from left, a vice premier on education affairs in North Korea’s cabinet pictured with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea had a top government official executed last month for having “bad sitting posture” that made it appear he fell asleep during a meeting, according to South Korea.
Meanwhile, Jeong Joon, Spokesman of the Unification Ministry, said in Pyongyang that government had confirmed the execution of the education official, Kim Yong-Jin.
Vice Premier Kim Yong Jin was executed for not keeping his posture upright at a public event, a South Korean government official later told Reuters.
The 71-year-old Kim is a career military intelligence official who is believed to be the mastermind behind the North’s frequent cyberattacks on Seoul.
The new system is being assembled at North Korea’s June 4 vehicle factory and production began in 2016, Radio Free Asia reported Wednesday.
Jeong said Kim Yong Chol, a top ruling Workers’ Party official in charge of anti-Seoul spy operations, had also been ordered to undertake “revolutionary re-education”, in a reference to the banishment at a rural collective farm or a coal mine.
The South’s comments follow a news report on Tuesday that the North had executed two high-ranking officials for disobeying leader Kim Jong Un. “Kim Yong-chol got in trouble for abusing his authority and was punished by being sent to the countryside for reeducation between mid-July and mid-August”.
Kim Seong-min, representative of Free North Korea Radio, said the torrential downpour and ensuing landslides earlier this week hit residential areas and farmlands in the country’s North Hamgyong and Ryanggang provinces, leaving people dead and homes destroyed.
The education minister was reportedly also implicated in a corruption case.
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News of the reclusive state’s new purges comes after the South said North Korea’s deputy ambassador in London had defected and arrived in the South with his family, dealing an embarrassing blow to Kim’s regime.
