Kim Jong-un has executed a senior North Korean official by firing squad because he did not sit properly during a meeting.

Education minister Kim Yong-Jin, 63, was shot dead after his 'bad sitting posture' in parliament incurred the wrath of the North Korean dictator.

The slouching vice premier was interrogated and found to be an 'anti-revolutionary agitator' before his execution in July, a South Korean official said.

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Kim Jong-un has executed education vice premier Kim Yong Jin (circled) by firing squad because he did not sit properly during a meeting

'Vice premier for education Kim Yong-Jin was executed,' South Korea's unification ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said.

'Kim Yong-Jin was denounced for his bad sitting posture when he was sitting below the rostrum,' he added, referring to North Korea's parliament.

Kim Jong-un was in the government meeting and was infuriated after Kim Yong-Jin sat in his chair 'with a bad attitude'.

Another South Korean official said the education official's poor posture was spotted at a meeting on June 29, when Kim Jong-un was named chairman of a new national defence department.

'The trouble for Kim began after he was seen sitting with bad attitude during a meeting of the People's Supreme Assembly,' the official told South Korean newspaper JoongAng Daily.

'He was later accused of being anti-revolutionary following a probe and a firing squad execution was carried out in July,' he added.

Kim Yong-chol, another North Korean official, was sent an 'ideological re-education' farm for a month in June and July because of his 'overbearing attitude'.

Meanwhile Choe Hwi, vice director of North Korea's propaganda and agitation department, has been sent to a similar camp.

Enraged: Kim Jong-un was infuriated after Kim Yong-Jin sat in his chair 'with a bad attitude'

The new report corrects claims made in the South Korean media yesterday that two North Korean officials were executed by anti-aircraft gun.

It was earlier reported that Ri Yong Jin, a senior official at the education ministry, was sentenced to death after he fell asleep in a meeting being addressed by Kim Jong-un.

It was also falsely claimed that Hwang Min, an agriculture minister, was sentenced to death for undermining the North Korean leader for coming up with new farming ideas.

The North Korean regime is especially paranoid in recent weeks after a senior official at the London embassy defected to South Korea along with his wife and children.

North Korea rarely announces purges or executions, although state media confirmed the execution of Kim's uncle and the man widely considered the second most powerful man in the country, Jang Song Thaek, in 2012 for factionalism and crimes damaging to the economy.