SEOUL (Web Desk) – North Korea executed its defence chief by putting him in front of an anti-aircraft gun at a firing range, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers, the latest in a series of high-level purges since Kim Jong Un took charge in Pyongyang.
Hyon Yong Chol, 66, who headed the isolated country’s military, was charged with treason, including disobeying Kim and falling asleep during an event at which North Korea’s young leader was present, according to South Korean lawmakers briefed in a closed-door meeting with the spy agency on Wednesday.
His execution was watched by hundreds of people, they said.
It was not clear how the NIS obtained the information and it is not possible to independently verify such reports from within secretive North Korea.
Analysts told the BBC that while reshuffling of officials happens often in North Korea, the execution of a figure so close to Mr Kim was surprising and cause for concern about the country’s stability.
Analysis site NK News said Mr Hyon had last appeared in state media a day before the alleged execution date.
Hyon Yong-Chol, as defence minister, was as close to Kim Jong-un as it is possible to get.
Such a public and brutal method of execution as obliteration by anti-aircraft gun would emphasise the cost of disloyalty.
Intelligence reports always have to be treated with scepticism but, in this case, the claims of the South Korean spy agency will be easy to verify. If they are not true, the defence minister would appear again in public.
Earlier, the South Korean agency said that senior officials were being executed at the rate of one a week. It all adds up to a picture of a leader in Pyongyang who feels very insecure and who is dangerous in his insecurity.
Mr Hyon is believed to have been a general since 2010, though little is known about him. He served on the committee for late leader Kim Jong-il’s funeral in December 2011, an indication of his growing influence.
He was appointed defence minister last year.
Mike Madden of North Korea Leadership Watch told the BBC that if true, the execution was “entirely a demonstration of power and authority”.
“This is indicative of Kim Jong-un’s impulsive decision-making”, he said, and a sign of a leader who is “not feeling secure”.
Mr Kim has conducted a series of purges of close officials since becoming North Korea’s leader.
The most notable was his uncle, Chang Song-thaek – once the country’s second-most powerful figure. He was arrested in December 2013 in front of a party meeting, found guilty of treason and immediately executed. The move was widely seen as the young Mr Kim stamping his authority.
Last month, a rights groups released satellite images it said showed unusual activity on a small arms range at the Kanggon army training area in October 2014.
The US-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said last month that, according to satellite images, the range was likely used for an execution by ZPU-4 anti-aircraft guns in October. The target was just 30 meters (100 feet) away from the weapons, which have a range of 8,000 meters, it said.
North Korea is one of the most insular countries in the world and its ruling power structure is highly opaque. The current leader is the third generation of the Kim family that has ruled with near-absolute power since the country was established in 1948.
Kim, who is in his early thirties, has changed his armed forces chief four times since coming to power. His father Kim Jong Il, who ruled the isolated nuclear-capable country for almost two decades, replaced his chief just three times.
