|
NORTH KOREA: DEFENSE MINISTER HYON YONG CHOL EXECUTED – S. KOREAN INTELLIGENCE
May 13, 2015: The No. 2 leader of North Korea’s military was recently executed as a “traitor” for showing disrespect for its top leader, Kim Jong-un, South Korean intelligence officials told lawmakers in Seoul.
Gen. Hyon Yong-chol, the minister of the People’s Armed Forces, was 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 at the session. 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 since late April.
The National Intelligence Service referred any queries from the news media to the two lawmakers, Lee Cheol-woo and Shin Kyoung-min.
It was not clear how the South Korean spy agency acquired information on General Hyon’s supposed execution.
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.
General Hyon has been one of many generals whose fortunes have appeared to be fluctuate 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. (Sources: nytimes.com, 13/05/2015)
|
