N Korea executes vice premier for ‘disrespect’: Seoul

Seoul, Aug 31 (AFP) North Korea has executed a vicepremier for showing disrespect during a meeting presided overby leader Kim Jong-Un, South Korea said today, after reportsthat he fell asleep. The regime also banished two other senior officials,Seoul said, the latest in a slew of punishments Kim isbelieved to have ordered in what analysts say is an attempt totighten his grip on power. "Vice premier for education Kim Yong-Jin was executed,"Seoul’s Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-Hee said ata regular briefing. Kim was killed by a firing squad in July as "ananti-party, anti-revolutionary agitator," added an official atthe ministry, who declined to be named. "Kim Yong-Jin was denounced for his bad sitting posturewhen he was sitting below the rostrum" during a session ofNorth Korea’s parliament, and then underwent an interrogationthat revealed other "crimes", the official told reporters. The mass-selling JoongAng Ilbo reported on Tuesday thattop regime figures had been punished, but identified theeducation official by a different name. "He incurred the wrath of Kim after he dozed off during ameeting presided over by Kim," it quoted a source as saying. "He was arrested on site and intensively questioned bythe state security ministry". The unification ministry said two other senior figureswere forced to undergo re-education sessions. One of them was Kim Yong-Chol, a top official in chargeof inter-Korean affairs and espionage activities against theSouth. The 71-year-old Kim is a career military intelligenceofficial who is believed to be the mastermind behind theNorth’s frequent cyberattacks on Seoul. Kim is also blamed by the South for the sinking of aSouth Korean warship in 2010 near the disputed sea border withthe North in the Yellow Sea. Kim was banished to a farm in July for a month for his"arrogance" and "abuse of power," the ministry official said. The spymaster, who was reinstated this month, is likelyto be tempted to prove his loyalty by committing provocativeacts against the South, the official said. "Therefore, we are keeping close tabs on the North", hesaid. Professor Yang Moo-Jin at the University of North KoreanStudies said the vice premier’s execution could be indirectlyverified when Pyongyang’s state media reveals the names ofattendees at the government’s anniversary ceremony onSeptember 9. That confirmation will be important; Seoul in Februarysaid North Korean military chief of staff Ri Yong-Gil had beenexecuted — only for Ri to turn up at a party rally inMay.(AFP)AMS