Advertisement

N. Korean official executed with flamethrower

A North Korean official has been executed with a flame-thrower, South Korean media reports this morning.

According to The Telegraph in London, the execution was part of a crackdown on loyalists of Kim Jong-un's purged uncle Jang Song-taek.

Eleven senior party officials with close ties to Mr Jang have reportedly been executed or sent to political prison camps.

Late last year Mr Jang was found guilty of corruption and activities that ran counter to the policies of the Workers' Party of Korea, The Telegraph says.

South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reports that Public Security deputy minister O Sang-hon was "executed by flame-thrower" because he had followed Mr Jang's instructions to turn the ministry into a personal security division to help safeguard his business dealings.

While the execution remains unconfirmed, such extreme methods of punishment are not unusual in Pyongyang, reports The Telegraph.

In 2012, an army chief was "hit with a mortar round and obliterated" for "drinking and carousing" during the official mourning period after Kim Jong-il's death.

According to The Telegraph, the purges and instability in North Korea is concerning South Korea, whose military has launched an intensive search across large areas of the country after a third unmanned reconnaissance drone was handed into authorities over the weekend.