North Korea’s defence chief ‘executed with anti-aircraft gun for treason’

[KimJongUn]

North Korea’s defence chief ‘executed with anti-aircraft gun for treason’

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 13 May, 2015, 12:15pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 13 May, 2015, 6:54pm

Reuters in Seoul

North Korean Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol (right) with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at Kumsusan Palace in Pyongyang on February 16. Photo: AFP

North Korea has executed its defence chief on treason charges by putting him in front of an anti-aircraft gun at a firing range, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told lawmakers.

Hyon Yong-chol, 66, who headed the isolated country’s military, was purged late last month for disobeying Kim Jong-un and falling asleep during a meeting at which North Korea’s young leader was present, according to South Korean lawmakers briefed in a closed-door meeting with the spy agency on Wednesday.

His execution, the latest of a series of high-level purges since Kim took power in 2011, was watched by hundreds of people, they said.

It was not clear how the NIS received the information and it is not possible to independently verify such reports from within secretive North Korea.

Hyon, last known to have spoken publicly at a security conference in Moscow in April, was said to have shown disrespect to Kim by dozing off at a military event, the Seoul lawmakers said, citing the agency briefing.

A ZPU-4 anti-aircraft machine-gun, the type said to have been used to kill Hyon Yong-chol. Photo: Wikipedia

Hyon Yong-chol attends the 4th Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS) in Moscow on April 16. Photo: Reuters

Hyon was believed to have voiced complaints against Kim Jong-un and had not followed his orders several times, according to the lawmakers. He was arrested late last month and executed three days later without legal proceedings, the NIS said.

The reported execution comes after South Korea’s spy agency said late last month that Kim ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year as punishment for challenging his authority.

In all, around 70 officials have been executed since Kim took over after his father’s death, Yonhap news agency cited the NIS as saying.

“North Korean internal politics is very volatile these days. Internally, there does not seem to be any respect for Kim Jong-un within the core and middle levels of the North Korean leadership,” said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership and contributor to the 38 North think tank.

“There is no clear or present danger to Kim Jong-un’s leadership or stability in North Korea, but if this continues to happen into next year, then we would seriously have to start looking at a contingency plan for the Korean peninsula.”

This photo taken on April 26 shows North Korean Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol (far left) during a speech by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (right) at an unspecified party meeting in Pyongyang. Phto: AFP

The lawmakers said Hyon was executed at a firing range at the Kanggon Military Training Area, 22 km north of Pyongyang.

The US-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said last month that, according to satellite images, the range was likely used for an execution by ZPU-4 anti-aircraft guns in October. The target was just 30 metres away from the weapons, which have a range of 8,000 metres, it said.

“The gut-wrenching viciousness of such an act would make ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ sound like a gross understatement,” the group said on its website.

“Given reports of past executions this is tragic, but unfortunately plausible in the twisted world of Kim Jong-un’s North Korea.”

An undated picture released by the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North Korean ruling Workers Party, on January 27 shows North Korean Defense Minister Hyon Yong-chol at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Photo: EPA

In 2013, Kim purged and executed his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, once considered the second-most powerful man in Pyongyang’s leadership circle, for corruption and committing crimes damaging to the economy, along with a group of officials close to him.

Pyongyang’s military leadership has been in a state of perpetual reshuffle since Kim Jong-un took power.

Kim, who is in his early thirties, has changed his armed forces chief four times since coming to power. His father Kim Jong-il, who ruled over the isolated nuclear-capable country for almost two decades, replaced his chief just three times.

Hyon, a little-known general, was promoted within the military at the same time as Kim Jong-un in 2010. He later became a vice-marshal of the North Korean army in 2012.

The South Korean spy agency told lawmakers that Ma Won-chun, known as North Korea’s chief architect of new infrastructure under Kim, was also purged.

Ma had also once served as vice director of the secretive Finance and Accounting Department in the ruling Workers’ Party and, up until recently, was effectively the regime’s money man.

 

[KimJongUn]

Why the latest report about North Korea savagely executing a general is probably true

PAMELA ENGEL MILITARY & DEFENSE MAY. 14, 2015, 3:16 AM

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) pays his respects to North Korean founder Kim Il Sung and his father Kim Jong Il at Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, in this January 1, 2015 photo.

It’s hard to know how much of the crazy news that comes out of North Korea is true, and reports of brutal executions have been proven false in the past.

But the latest report about a top-ranking general being executed with an anti-aircraft gun for falling asleep during a meeting may just be accurate.

First, the latest rumors about the top-ranking military official, Gen. Hyon Yong-chol, come from South Korean intelligence officials to the country’s lawmakers.

The New York Times reports that information from South Korean intelligence is generally considered to be reliable. (The Times adds the caveat that South Korea’s spy agency “has in the past been accused of leaking shocking news about their isolated and secretive neighbor to unsettle its government or divert attention from domestic scandals.”)

The spy agency said Hyon was executed in front of hundreds of people for being a “traitor.”

Adding credence to the South Korean spies in this case: The Washington Post reported earlier this month that new satellite imagery appears to show people standing in front of anti-aircraft machine guns, waiting to be executed.

The images are from October, taken at a military training area near Pyongyang, but North Korea has long been rumored to execute people in this manner. Experts have questioned this supposed method of execution, but the satellites images from U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea lend more credence to the reports.

The human rights report notes that vehicles present at the small-arms firing range where the supposed execution took place in October suggest that senior North Korean officers were present at the facility, which would be unlikely if it were just a training exercise. And the ZPU-4 anti-aircraft guns lined up at the facility wouldn’t typically be seen in exercises at a small-arms range.

From the report:

The most plausible explanation of the scene captured in the October 7th satellite image is a gruesome public execution. Anyone who has witnessed the damage one single U.S. .50 caliber round does to the human body will shudder just trying to imagine a battery of 24 heavy machine guns being fired at human beings. Bodies would be nearly pulverized. The gut-wrenching viciousness of such an act would make “cruel and unusual punishment” sound like a gross understatement.

Here’s the satellite image from the report:

U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

The Times notes that recently, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “is believed to have been terrorizing North Korea’s elites with executions and purges as he has struggled to establish his authority” after his father, the previous and much-feared dictator Kim Jong Il, died in 2011.

South Korean officials have asserted that Kim Jong Un has executed dozens of senior North Korean officials in the past few years for questioning his decisions or failing to follow orders, according to the Times. One of the men rumored to be executed was Kim’s uncle, who was reportedly accused of plotting a coup.

So while it’s hard to know what’s really going on in the Hermit kingdom, the latest savage execution is probably true.