Two senior North Korean officials were executed with an anti-aircraft gun in early August on the orders of Kim Jong Un, South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, citing people it did not identify. 
 
 Ri Yong Jin, a senior official in the education ministry -- possibly minister -- was arrested for dozing off during a meeting with Kim and charged with corruption before being killed, the paper said. Former Agriculture Minister Hwang Min was purged over a proposed project seen as a direct challenge to Kim’s leadership, it said. 
 
 If true, it would mark the first executions ordered by Kim from outside his party or the military, the paper said. A spokesman at South Korea’s Unification Ministry said he couldn’t immediately confirm the JoongAng report. 
 
 Kim has carried out a series of executions since taking power in 2011 after his father’s death as he puts his mark on the leadership of the isolated nuclear-armed nation. The most high profile was the killing three years ago of his uncle and one-time deputy Jang Song Thaek. He had about 50 officials executed in 2014 on charges ranging from graft to watching South Korean soap operas. 
 
 "Kim is continuing to replace the old guard of his father’s regime with loyalists," said Robert Kelly, a political science professor at South Korea’s Pusan National University. "The charges are obviously trumped up, and this is how promotion or demotion often works in totalitarian states without legitimate venues for opposition." 
 
 Uncle Purged 
 
 Kim had his military chief Ri Yong Gil executed in February on charges including corruption, Yonhap News reported at the time. In January last year he executed General Pyon In Son, head of operations in the army, for disagreeing with him; and in May of that year he purged his defense minister Hyon Yong Chol for dozing off at a rally. 
 
 For an explainer on North Korea’s nuclear program, click here. 
 
 Still, reports of purges of senior North Korean officials are not uncommon and at times have proven to be unreliable. 
 
 Earlier this month, Seoul announced that a senior North Korean diplomat based in the U.K. had defected to South Korea. The man was among seven diplomats who have defected this year, according to JoongAng Ilbo. 
 
 Fractured Regime? 
 
 South Korean President Park Geun Hye said on Monday the defections signal a “serious fracture” within the North Korean regime and raise the prospects of fresh provocations as Kim seeks to maintain control. Her comments came as South Korea and the U.S. hold annual military drills that North Korea calls a prelude to an invasion. 
 
 Even so, Kelly at Pusan University said that the isolated state is probably more stable than many people think or want it to be. 
 
 "I don’t think there has been a fracture," he said. "So long as China keeps the goodies flowing into Pyongyang, which is like a city-state in an ocean of deprivation, the elites won’t turn on each other." ||||| Two senior regime officers reported to have been killed for posing a threat to leader Kim Jong-un 
 
 North Korea’s purge of senior officials who are deemed a threat to Kim Jong-un’s leadership of the country has continued with the public executions of two senior officials, according to South Korean media, possibly to generate fear among members of the elite after recent high-level defections. 
 
 
 
 The conservative daily, the JoongAng Ilbo, reported on Tuesday that Hwang Min, a former agriculture minister, and Ri Yong-jin, a senior official at the education ministry, were executed by anti-aircraft gun at a military academy in Pyongyang earlier this month. 
 
 Hwang was reportedly killed for making policy proposals that were seen as a direct threat to Kim’s leadership. The report did not give details of the proposals. Ri was said to have been executed for falling asleep during a meeting chaired by Kim. 
 
 The newspaper’s front-page report, based on information from an unnamed source it claimed had “special knowledge” of the regime, has not been independently verified. No announcement has been made by the state’s official KCNA news agency. 
 
 The rumoured executions, though, would fit into a pattern of purges Kim has ordered against perceived enemies since he became leader in late 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il. 
 
 The most influential official to have been executed was Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle and second-in-command. Jang, denounced as a “traitor for all ages”, was killed in December 2013 after being found guilty of treason and other crimes against the North Korean state. 
 
 In April last year, Hyon Yong-chol, a former defence chief, was executed after falling asleep during a military rally attended by Kim. 
 
 The JoongAng Ilbo speculated that the executions could herald a new round of purges, intended as a show of force by Kim in retaliation for recent defections, including that of Thae Yong-ho, deputy ambassador at the North Korean embassy in London. 
 
 The regime denounced Thae as “human scum ”, and claimed he had fled to South Korea to escape charges of misusing government funds, selling state secrets and committing child rape. 
 
 
 
 The JoongAng Ilbo said the defections had “rekindled talk of instability and disunity among the North Korean elite”. ||||| North Korean leader Kim Jong-un executed two top officials publicly, killing them with an anti-aircraft gun, a source with special knowledge of North Korea told the JoongAng Ilbo.One was apparently killed for nodding off during a meeting with Kim.The executed men were Hwang Min, former agricultural minister, and Ri Yong-jin, who had a senior position in the education ministry, possibly as high as minister level.“I have the information that ministers of agriculture and education were publicly executed on a special order from Kim Jong-un,” said the source. The executions took place at a military academy in Pyongyang, he said, and an anti-aircraft gun was used.If the report is true, it would mark the first execution ordered by Kim Jong-un from outside the Workers’ Party and military.The report may be interpreted as a new reign of terror in North Korea prompted by a series of defections by senior officials that has rekindled talk of instability and disunity among the North Korean elite.“One of the executed is Hwang Min, a former agricultural minister,” said the source. “I understand he was executed because policy proposals he had pushed for were seen as a direct challenge to the Kim Jong-un leadership."The source did not elaborate what the proposal was or why it was seen as a challenge to the leader. Hwang was replaced by Ko In-ho at a meeting of the rubber-stamp parliament in late June before apparently being executed.The other ill-fated official was Ri Yong-jin, who the source said was a ministerial-level official at the education ministry.“He incurred the wrath of Kim after he dozed off during a meeting presided over by Kim. He was arrested on site and intensively questioned by the state security ministry. He was executed after other charges such as corruption were found during the probe.”In North Korea, there are two ministries related to education: the Ministry of Common Education and Ministry of Higher Education, which are headed by Kim Sung-du and Thae Hyong-chol, who is also president of Kim Il Sung University. A government official said the ill-fated Ri could have had a minister-level position at one of the two.Since taking over after his father’s death in late 2011, Kim has carried out a series of executions of party and military officials. The most high-profile was the December 2013 execution of Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle and former political guardian. Another high-profile execution was that of Hyon Yong-chol, North Korea’s former defense chief, who South Korean intelligence said was executed by firing squad in April 2015 on charges of dozing off during a meeting attended by the supreme leader.If the report of the two executions is true, they may have been related to a series of defections by senior North Korean officials with privileged backgrounds.The recent defection of Thae Yong-ho, formerly No. 2 at the North Korean embassy in London, sparked speculation that there is disunity among the North’s inner circle and a decline in faith in the Kim regime. The young leader could have felt the need to impose a sense of terror among elite officials to reinforce their loyalty.“The recent series of defections by top officials is less a looming sign of the collapse of the North Korean regime than the outcome of the North’s wrong policies for its overseas officials,” said Kim Byung-yeon, professor of economics at Seoul National University, who specializes in the North Korean economy.North Korean officials overseas are said to be under growing pressure to find source of hard currency to be transferred to Pyongyang after sanctions were slapped on the country in March, following its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range missile launch the following month. Such pressure could have driven elite officials like Thae to opt to defect to the South rather than face dire consequences back home after failing to find the motherland extra sources of foreign exchange, observers say.President Park Geun-hye said Monday that her government would continue to “send a message of hope for North Korean people for the life of liberty and dignity.”At a meeting with senior secretaries at the Blue House, Park said, “Improving human rights conditions in North Korea is a humanitarian issue that cannot be put off any more and a cornerstone to bringing about an era of peace on the Korean Peninsula.”She called on the military to maintain readiness so the North Korean regime can be brought to “self-destruction” should it choose to provoke the South violently.BY KANG JIN-KYU, LEE YOUNG-JONG [kang.jinkyu@joongang.co.kr]
– Kim Jong Un has allegedly had two men put to death using a method he's been said to have used before: by anti-aircraft gun. South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reports by way of an unnamed source that two men were publicly executed earlier this month. It identifies the men as Ri Yong Jin, a high-ranking official in the education ministry, and Hwang Min, the former agriculture minister. The men's alleged offenses: Ri fell asleep while in a meeting with Kim and was "arrested on site and intensively questioned"; corruption charges followed. In Hwang's case, unspecified "policy proposals he had pushed for were seen as a direct challenge to the Kim Jong Un leadership," says the source. While Kim is thought to have ordered at least 70 executions since taking power in 2011, Bloomberg highlights one difference with the current case: If Ri and Hwang were in fact put to death, they are the first from outside the Workers' Party or the military to have met that fate on Kim's orders. The Guardian notes the news has not been independently verified, nor has it been announced by the KCNA. The South Korean newspaper suggests the executions were in part prompted by a high-profile defection and carried out as a way of reasserting control over the country's elite. (Ri's alleged situation has echoes of another from 2015.)