North Korea’s minister of the People’s Armed Forces (MPAF), Hyon Yong Chol, was executed for being “irreverent,” South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported on the 13th.

According to NIS officials, Hyon’s demise was brought on by dozing off during a military event and “talking back” to leader Kim Jong Un. “Hyon Yong Chol was shot by firing squad with an anti-aircraft gun near an artillery range in Pyongyang on April 30th,” an NIS official reported during the briefing, adding that the execution took place in front of hundreds of spectators. 

Byon In Son, director of operations at the military’s General Staff; Ma Won Chun, the head of the National Defense Commission’s planning committee; and Kwang Sang, director of the Chosun Workers’ Party Finance and Accounting Department, were also allegedly purged, according to the NIS report.

In addition, NIS addressed claims in a CNN report yesterday that Kim Jong Un ordered his aunt, Kim Kyong Hui, to be poisoned, maintaining that they are “groundless."

 When asked if Hwang Pyong So, a standing member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the Workers’ Party [WPK]and director of the General Political Bureau of the Chosun People’s Army [KPA], also fell victim to the purges, NIS responded that he is alleged to be “alive and has not been purged.” 

[Source: Daily NK]