Two vice-ministers among those killed on North Korean dictator’s orders this year, according to intelligence agency

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year, including several who complained about his policies, South Korea’s intelligence agency has said.



Those executed include two vice-ministers, the Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday, citing legislators who attended a briefing by the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

Both were punished for opposing or complaining about Kim’s directives, the legislators said, adding that a vice-minister from the forestry department was executed for complaining about Kim’s forestation plan.

The NIS said four members of North Korea’s Unhasu orchestra, where Ri Sol-ju, Kim’s wife, once worked as a singer, were also executed in March. They were killed by firing squad on spying charges, the NIS said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The North Korean Unhasu orchestra and musicians from the Radio France Philharmonic at a 2012 rehearsal in the Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris. Photograph: Pierre Verdy/AFP/Getty Images

In 2013, Japanese and South Korean media reported that a number of orchestra members had been executed for violating pornography laws in a bid by Kim to protect his wife’s reputation.

The Kim dynasty has ruled reclusive and impoverished North Korea for more than six decades with an iron fist and a pervasive personality cult.

The NIS suggested Kim was following the well-trodden path of his father and grandfather in using regular purges and executions to ensure discipline and loyalty.

Kim had his uncle and one-time political mentor Jang Song-thaek executed in late 2013 on charges including treason and corruption.

Jang had played a key role in cementing the leadership of the inexperienced Kim, who took over after the death of Kim Jong-il, his father, in December 2011.

But analysts said Kim resented Jang’s growing political power and intervention in lucrative trade deals.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Unhasu orchestra concert from the North Korea KCNA news agency’s YouTube channel

Meanwhile, the NIS also said Kim’s younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, who has risen swiftly through the leadership ranks, appeared to have married a college classmate and was expecting a baby next month.

Analysts say Kim Yo-jong, who once studied with her brother in Switzerland, wields increasing influence as the head of a propaganda unit in charge of her brother’s official visits.

She has regularly accompanied her brother on his “field guidance” trips since she was named as part of the powerful National Defence Commission in 2013 and granted a senior party title late last year.