NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un has managed to smash his father’s record as the country’s most brutal dictator by executing more people in his first few years in the top job.

That’s according to South Korean authorities who say the North Korean leader has executed 70 officials since taking power in late 2011 in a “reign of terror” that far exceeds the bloodshed of his father.

During a forum in Seoul this week, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un’s father, had only executed about 10 officials during his first years in power.

An official from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, who refused to be named, confirmed the spy agency believed the younger Kim has ordered the deaths of around 70 officials but wouldn’t reveal how it obtained the information.

North Korea, an authoritarian nation ruled by the Kim family since its founding in 1948, is secretive about its government’s inner workings, and information collected by outsiders is often impossible to confirm.

High-level government purges have a long history in North Korea.

To strengthen his power, Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il-Sung, removed pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese factions within the senior leadership in the years after the 1950-53 Korean War.

The high-ranking victims included Pak Hon Yong, formerly the vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and the country’s foreign minister, who was executed in 1955 after being accused of spying for the US.

Kim Jong-un has also removed key members of the old guard through a series of purges since taking over after the death of Kim Jong-il.

The most spectacular purge to date was the 2013 execution of his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, for alleged treason.

Jang was married to Kim Jong-il’s sister and was once considered the second most powerful man in North Korea.

South Korea’s spy agency claimed that in May, Kim ordered his then-defence chief Hyon Yong Chol executed with an anti-aircraft gun for complaining about the young ruler, talking back to him and sleeping during a meeting.

Experts say Kim Jong-un could be using fear to solidify his leadership, but those efforts could fail if he doesn’t improve the country’s shattered economy.