North Korea has executed a top education official and banished two other officials to rural areas for re-education, South Korean officials said on Wednesday. If confirmed, they would be the latest in a series of killings, purges and dismissals carried out since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took power in late 2011.
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.
Rival South Korea, which runs several intelligence organizations mainly tasked with spying on North Korea, has a mixed record on reporting developments in the country. In May, a former North Korean military chief, who Seoul said had been executed, was found to be alive and holding new senior-level posts.