North Korea Said to Execute a Top Official, With an Antiaircraft Gun

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/world/asia/north-korea-said-to-execute-a-top-official.html

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SEOUL, South Korea — The second-highest officer in North Korea’s military was recently executed as a traitor for showing disrespect for the nation’s leader, Kim Jong-un, South Korean intelligence officials told lawmakers here Wednesday.

Gen. Hyon Yong-chol, the minister of the People’s Armed Forces, is believed to have been executed with an antiaircraft gun in Pyongyang, the North’s capital, around April 30, National Intelligence Service officials told South Korean lawmakers during a closed parliamentary session.

Mr. Kim deemed General Hyon disloyal after he dozed off during military events and second-guessed Mr. Kim’s orders, the intelligence officials were quoted as saying by two lawmakers, who attended the session. With hundreds of North Korea’s elite watching, General Hyon was executed on charges of being a traitor, the officials said. General Hyon, who is considered second in the military hierarchy only to Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong-so, has disappeared from North Korea’s state-run news media starting in late April.

The National Intelligence Service referred any queries from the news media to the two lawmakers, Lee Cheol-woo and Shin Kyoung-min.

Mr. Kim is believed to have been terrorizing North Korea’s elites with executions and purges as he has struggled to establish his authority since the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011.

It is not clear how the South Korean spy agency acquired information on General Hyon’s supposed execution. Last month, the agency told the parliamentary intelligence committee that North Korea had executed 15 high-ranking government officials this year.

Information the spy agency has provided during closed parliamentary hearings has been considered reliable. But analysts caution that gathering verifiable data on the inner workings of the North’s government is difficult.

When Mr. Kim’s father died, South Korean intelligence officials were not aware of it until Pyongyang announced the news two days later.

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at the Sejong Institute in South Korea, warned that the spy agency was publicizing “unverified intelligence” on the supposed execution of General Hyon and said that prudent analysts should wait for more solid evidence.

“If he was really executed before other officials in late April, North Korea by now would have erased all his images from old documentary footage being broadcast on the North Korean TV, but that apparently has not happened yet,” Mr. Cheong said.

The spy agency has in the past been accused of leaking shocking news about North Korea to unsettle its government or divert attention from domestic scandals. In recent weeks, the South Korean government has been rocked by the North’s test of a submarine-launched missile and a domestic bribery scandal that led to the resignation of the prime minister.

South Korean officials said North Korea’s leader, believed to be in his early 30s, was resorting to a mix of terror and rewards to thwart any challenge to his leadership. He is believed to have ordered the execution of 68 senior officials from 2012 to last year, according to the South Korean spy agency. The reasons given included failure to follow through with Mr. Kim’s orders or raising questions about his decisions.

In 2013, an uncle of Mr. Kim’s, Jang Song-thaek, long considered the second most powerful man in North Korea, was executed, accused of stealing state funds and plotting to overthrow Mr. Kim.

General Hyon has been one of many generals whose fortunes appear to fluctuate according to Mr. Kim’s whim. The general’s status seemed to soar in 2012, when he became vice marshal as chief of the general staff of the North Korean People’s Army.

He did not last long in that post, however, as he was soon demoted to general. He resurfaced as the head of the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces in June.