SEOUL — North Korea has executed a vice-premier and banished two other top officials to rural areas for re-education, South Korean officials said Wednesday. North Korea is a closed, authoritarian country with a state-controlled press that often makes it difficult for outsiders, and even North Korean citizens, to know what’s happening in the government. But a South Korean official, speaking on condition of anonymity citing office rules, said Kim was executed by firing squad in July for unspecified anti-revolutionary and factional acts. The South Korean national news agency, Yonhap, citing an anonymous government source, reported that the deputy premier had been arrested for sitting in a “disrespectful” posture during a meeting led by Kim Jong Un. The official said Kim Yong Chol was recently reinstated.

Source: National Post August 31, 2016 13:07 UTC