North Korea executed at least five senior security officials using anti-aircraft guns, the head of South Korea’s intelligence services said Monday.
South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers in Seoul on Monday that at least five North Korean officials in the country’s Ministry of State Security were executed with the anti-aircraft guns, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The executions were carried out because of unspecified “false reports” that “enraged” Kim Jong Un.
The security officials had been working under Kim Won Hong, North Korea’s former top security chief, who was recently purged last month.
Kim Won Hong was removed from power in mid-January because of possible corruption and abuse of power.
According to Lee Cheol-woo, a South Korean lawmaker who attended the briefing, Lee Byung-ho, the director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said that Mr Kim, Pyongyang’s minister of State Security, is now under house arrest.
It is unclear what “false reports” were made by the officials and the National Intelligence Service didn’t say how the information was obtained.
This information comes amid reports from Seoul that the North Korean government ordered the killing of Kim Jong Un’s half brother in Malaysia.
Since taking power in 2011, Kim Jong Un has ordered several high profile executions, including his uncle Jang Song Thaek.
[revad2]
