North Korea Executes Vice Premier For Dozing During Kim's Speech

North Korea has executed a vice premier Kim Yong-Jin for dozing off during a meeting presided over by the country’s Supreme leader Kim Jong-Un.

The governement has also banished two other officials for re-education, various local media in South Korea reported Wednesday.

"Vice premier for education Kim Yong-Jin was executed," Seoul's Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-Hee said. He was killed by a firing squad in July as an “anti-party, anti-revolutionary agitator," added a South Korean official at the ministry.

"Kim Yong-jin made the mistake of falling asleep in a meeting with Mr Kim" the official told South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper

The vice premier was denounced for his bad sitting posture when he was sitting below the rostrum during a session of North Korea's parliament. He was arrested on site and was intensively interogated by the state security ministry, then he revealed his other crimes as well.

Two other senior figures were forced to undergo re-education sessions. One of them was Kim Yong-Chol, a top official in charge of inter-Korean affairs and espionage activities against the South, The unification ministry added.

The 71-year-old Kim Yong chol is a career military intelligence official who is believed to be the mastermind behind the North's frequent cyberattacks against Seoul. He was blamed by the South for the sinking of a South Korean warship in 2010 near the disputed sea border with the North in the Yellow Sea. He was banished to an agricultural farm in July for a month for his "arrogance" and "abuse of power,”.

Kim Yong-Chol, who was subsequently reinstated this month, is likely to be tempted to prove his loyalty by committing provocative acts against the South, the official said. "Therefore, we are keeping a close tab on the North," he said.

The most notorious case of North Korea's execution was that of Kim's uncle and onetime No. 2 Jang Song-Thaek, who was charged with treason and corruption in December 2013.