North Korea executes 5 officials with anti-aircraft guns, says Seoul

SEOUL // North Korea executed five senior security officials with anti-aircraft guns because they made false reports that “enraged” leader Kim Jong-un, South Korea’s spy agency said Monday.

The comments by the National Intelligence Service in a private briefing to South Korean politicians come as Malaysia investigates the assassination of Mr Kim’s elder half brother, Kim Jong-nam. That investigation is still going on, but South Korea said it believed Kim Jong-un ordered the assassination, which took place February 13 at Kuala Lumpur’s airport.

The spy agency said that five North Korean officials in the department of recently purged state security chief Kim Won-hong were executed by anti-aircraft guns because of the false reports to Mr Kim, South Korean politician Lee Cheol Woo said.

It is not clear what false reports they allegedly made, and the NIS did not say how it received its information. South Korean spies have a spotty record when reporting about high-level events in North Korea.

North Korea fired Kim Won-hong in January, saying his agency was responsible for corruption, abuse of power and torture committed by his agency, Seoul said earlier this month. The fallen minister had been seen as close to Kim Jong-un. Pyongyang has not publicly said anything about Kim Won-hong or about the alleged executions in his department.

Mr Lee also cited the NIS as saying that Kim Won-hong’s dismissal was linked to those false reports, which “enraged” Kim Jong Un when they were discovered.

Since taking power in late 2011, Kim Jong-un has reportedly executed or purged a large number of high-level government officials in what Seoul has called a “reign of terror”.

* Associated Press