Kim Has Officials Killed By Anti-aircraft Gun

Two senior North Korean officials were

executed with an anti-aircraft gun in early

August on the orders of Kim Jong Un, South

Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported,

citing people it did not identify.

Ri Yong Jin, a senior official in the education

ministry -- possibly minister -- was arrested for

dozing off during a meeting with Kim and

charged with corruption before being killed, the

paper said. Former Agriculture Minister Hwang

Min was purged over a proposed project seen as

a direct challenge to Kim’s leadership, it said.

If true, it would mark the first executions

ordered by Kim from outside his party or the

military, the paper said. A spokesman at South

Korea’s Unification Ministry said he couldn’t

immediately confirm the JoongAng report.

Kim has carried out a series of executions since

taking power in 2011 after his father’s death as

he puts his mark on the leadership of the

isolated nuclear-armed nation. The most high

profile was the killing three years ago of his

uncle and one-time deputy Jang Song Thaek. He

had about 50 officials executed in 2014 on

charges ranging from graft to watching South

Korean soap operas.

"Kim is continuing to replace the old guard of

his father’s regime with loyalists," said Robert

Kelly, a political science professor at South

Korea’s Pusan National University. "The charges

are obviously trumped up, and this is how

promotion or demotion often works in

totalitarian states without legitimate venues for

opposition."

Uncle Purged

Kim had his military chief Ri Yong Gil executed

in February on charges including corruption,

Yonhap News reported at the time. In January

last year he executed General Pyon In Son, head

of operations in the army, for disagreeing with

him; and in May of that year he purged his

defense minister Hyon Yong Chol for dozing off

at a rally.

For an explainer on North Korea’s nuclear

program, click here .

Still, reports of purges of senior North Korean

officials are not uncommon and at times have

proven to be unreliable.

Earlier this month, Seoul announced that a

senior North Korean diplomat based in the U.K.

had defected to South Korea. The man was

among seven diplomats who have defected this

year, according to JoongAng Ilbo.

Fractured Regime?

South Korean President Park Geun Hye said on

Monday the defections signal a “serious

fracture” within the North Korean regime and

raise the prospects of fresh provocations as Kim

seeks to maintain control. Her comments came

as South Korea and the U.S. hold annual

military drills that North Korea calls a prelude

to an invasion.

Even so, Kelly at Pusan University said that the

isolated state is probably more stable than many

people think or want it to be.

"I don’t think there has been a fracture," he

said. "So long as China keeps the goodies

flowing into Pyongyang, which is like a city-

state in an ocean of deprivation, the elites won’t

turn on each other."