N. Korea executed vice premier in July: Seoul official

North Korea has carried out the execution of a vice premier, a Seoul government official said Wednesday, as the North's leader moves to further strengthen his reign of terror.

The official said North Korea executed the 63-year-old Kim Yong-jin by firing squad last month after he was accused of showing a bad attitude when attending a key parliamentary meeting held in late June.

He was shot after being branded an anti-revolutionary element.

He was interrogated by the North's ministry on state security before being executed, he added.

The official said the North sent Kim Yong-chol, 71, the head of the United Front Department, to a rural farm for one month of re-education in mid-July as he showed a "heavy-handed" attitude and abused his power. 

 This photo carried by North Korea's state media shows Kim attending an event in early July to celebrate the election of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as the chairman of the Commission on State Affairs.(Yonhap)

"As Kim will be more inclined to show his loyalty (to the North's leader) after (re-education), so the government is keeping close tabs on the possibility that North Korea would show a more hardline attitude toward South Korea," the official said.

Choe Hwi, a 61-year-old a vice department director of the ruling party's central committee, has also been undergoing re-education in a rural area since late May, the official added.

The North's leader has ordered the execution of many government and military officials, including his once-powerful uncle Jang Song-thaek, as he seeks to consolidate his oppressive rule. In May last year, then defense chief Hyon Yong-chol was executed. (Yonhap)