KIM JONG-UN SHUFFLES CABINET: North Korea Has Executed a Deputy Premier, Seoul Reports

Jeong Joon-hee, a spokesman for the South’s Unification Ministry, said at a news briefing that the South Korean government had used various means to confirm the execution of Kim Yong-jin, the deputy premier, and the purge of Kim Yong-chol, the head of the United Front Department of the ruling Workers’ Party, which handles relations with, as well as spying operations against, South Korea. Choe Hui, a deputy chief of the party’s Propaganda and Agitation Department, was also banished for re-education, Mr. Jeong said.

Mr. Jeong provided no further details, including when the reported punishments were believed to have taken place or how South Korea had learned of them. But in a later briefing, a senior Unification Ministry official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said that Kim Jong-un had found fault with the 63-year-old deputy premier’s “disrespectful posture” during a meeting that Mr. Kim oversaw in late June.

Disrespectful posture?

Kim Yong-jin was reportedly executed by firing squad back in July, which may or may not be a step up from execution by anti-aircraft gun.

UPDATE: It seems as though Kim did indeed go with execution-by-anti-aircraft-gun yet again.