North Korea's Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol has been executed, South Korea's spy agency has told parliament, according to media reports.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said MPs were told Mr Hyon had been killed on 30 April by anti-aircraft fire in front of an audience of hundreds.
He is believed to have been accused of showing disloyalty to North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un.
Reports from North Korea are impossible to independently confirm.There were few details of the reported execution, but Yonhap - quoting a briefing by the South Korea's National Intelligence Agency (NIS) - said Mr Hyon had fallen asleep during an event attended by Kim Jong-un and had not carried out instructions.
Analysis site NK News said Mr Hyon had last appeared in state media a day before the alleged execution date.
Hyon Yong-Chol, as defence minister, was as close to Kim Jong-un as it is possible to get.
Such a public and brutal method of execution as obliteration by anti-aircraft gun would emphasise the cost of disloyalty.Intelligence reports always have to be treated with scepticism but, in this case, the claims of the South Korean spy agency will be easy to verify. If they are not true, the defence minister would appear again in public.Earlier, the South Korean agency said that senior officials were being executed at the rate of one a week. It all adds up to a picture of a leader in Pyongyang who feels very insecure and who is dangerous in his insecurity.
No comments:
Post a Comment