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North Korea's deputy premier executed for high treason

Posted September. 01, 2016 06:50,   

Updated September. 01, 2016 07:07

한국어
Kim Yong Jin, a deputy premier in North Korea's cabinet, has been executed due to disrespectful posture during a meeting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw. An official from South Korean Ministry of Unification explained that the deputy premier was pointed out to show improper posture during the Supreme People's Assembly held on June 29, and a subsequent investigation found him to be an "anti-party reactionary" guilty of "modern-day factionalism," and was executed in July by firing squad.

"Kim Yong Jin was interrogated for cleaning his eyeglasses during Kim Jong Un's speech at the 7th Party Congress held in May, and has been executed on July 25," a South Korean high-level official said. The 63-year-old deputy premier was allegedly executed for political crimes on charge of the so-called "insulting and disrespectful nature" in front of the country's reclusive leader during the Party Congress and the Supreme People's Assembly held consecutively from May to June.

He was once ranked as the 30th among the 53-member funeral committee when the North's Deputy Premier Kang Sok Ju died in May. As of Wednesday, North Korean on-line propaganda media removed photos of events participated by the deputy premier.

South Korean ministry announced that Kim Yong Chol, head of the United Front Department of the ruling Workers' Party and the Party's Central Committee, and Choe Hui, deputy chief of the party's Propaganda and Agitation Department, were also banished for re-education. The re-education is a North Korean ideology training camp where officials are purged to local farms to engage in labor activities. According to an official from the Ministry of Unification, "Kim was punished with re-education at a local farm for a month between mid-July to mid-August for his abuse of power such as high-handed manners and over-expanding his department powers."

"Kim has been now reinstated, and is highly likely to design recalcitrant provocative actions to the South, as he is demanded to prove his allegiance to his leader, the South Korean official added. Furthermore, Choe has been re-educating since late-May after the North' leader criticized Choe's propaganda activities."



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