Education minister in North Korea executed for disrespect

North Korea has executed a vice premier for showing disrespect during a meeting presided over by leader Kim Jong-un, and banished two other officials for re-education, South Korea says.

Since taking power after his father’s death in late 2011, Kim is believed to have executed or demoted a number of senior figures in what analysts say is an attempt to tighten his grip on power.

“Vice premier for education Kim Yong-jin was executed,” Seoul’s unification ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee told reporters at a regular press briefing.

The education minister was killed by a firing squad in July as “an anti-party, anti-revolutionary agitator”, according to an official at the ministry who wished to remain anonymous.

“Kim Yong-jin was denounced for his bad sitting posture when he was sitting below the rostrum,” the official told reporters, adding that it happened during a session of North Korea’s Parliament.

The minister then underwent an interrogation that revealed his other crimes.

The mass-selling JoongAng Ilbo newspaper first reported on Tuesday that top figures had been punished, but identified the education official by a different name.

“He incurred the wrath of Kim after he dozed off during a meeting presided over by Kim. He was arrested on site and intensively questioned by the state security ministry,” it quoted a source as saying.

-Re-education for two senior officials-

The ministry said two other senior officials had to undergo re-education sessions.

One of them was Kim Yong-chol, a top official in charge of inter-Korean affairs and espionage activities against the South.

The 71-year-old Kim is a career military intelligence official who is believed to be the mastermind behind the North’s frequent cyber-attacks against Seoul.

Kim is also 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.

Mr Kim was banished to an agricultural farm in July for a month for his “arrogance” and “abuse of power”, the ministry official said.

Kim Yong-chol, who was subsequently reinstated this month, is likely to be tempted to prove his loyalty by committing provocative acts against the South, the official said.

“Therefore, we are keeping a close tab on the North”, he said.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency put the number of party officials executed during Kim Jong-un’s rule at over 100.

The most notorious case was that of the leader’s uncle Jang Song-thaek, who was executed for charges including treason and corruption in December 2013.

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.