DHAKA: North Korea has executed their education chief Kim Yong Jin through firing squad.

Kim was branded “anti-party and a counter-revolutionary member” by the country’s State Security Department, after he exercised a “bad attitude” during North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly in June, South Korean officials said, CNN reports.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon Hee confirmed the execution during a press conference early on Wednesday, which was held to announce the execution of a high government official.

Two other senior officials were also punished in the past few months but they managed to escape execution.

Executions are widely considered a political tool for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to consolidate his hold on power.

In May 2015, the country’s defense minister, Hyon Yong-chol, was reportedly killed with an anti-aircraft gun after being accused of treason and mad manner.

Two years earlier, Kim’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, was executed after being branded a “traitor for all ages”.

BDST: 1331 HRS, AUG 31, 2016
NR/RR