Two senior North Korean officials were executed with an anti-aircraft gun in early August on the orders of Kim Jong Un, South Korea’s Joong-Ang Ilbo newspaper reported, citing people it did not identify.
Ri Yong Jin, a senior official in the Education Ministry — possibly the minister — was arrested for dozing off during a meeting with Kim and was charged with corruption before being killed, the paper said.
Former Agriculture Minister Hwang Min was purged over a proposed project seen as a direct challenge to Kim’s leadership, it said.
If true, it would mark the first executions ordered by Kim from outside his party or the military, the paper said. A spokesman at South Korea’s Unification Ministry said he couldn’t immediately confirm the JoongAng report.
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.