Anchor: South Korea’s intelligence agency has revealed that North Korea executed its second-highest ranking military official last month. Kim Jong-un’s reign of terror appears to be building steam as many of his close aides have also recently been purged.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report: The National Intelligence Service (NIS) says the chief of North Korea's People's Armed Forces was executed for treason as well as disloyalty and disrespect toward North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
 
At a closed-door briefing on Wednesday at the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, the NIS said Hyon Yong-chol was executed on April 30, just three days after his arrest and without facing a trial.
 
Hyon is said to have been executed with an anti-aircraft gun at Gang Gun Military Academy in Pyongyang with hundreds in attendance.
 
The NIS said Hyon was seen dozing off during an event attended by Kim on April 24 and was said to have often talked back to the young leader and disobeyed his commands.
 
Hyon is the highest ranking official to be purged since Kim’s uncle Jang Song-thaek was executed in December 2013.
 
Hyon held the number two position in North Korea’s military, after Hwang Pyong-so, chief of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army.
 
Along with Hyon, three officials are known to have been purged: Han Kwang-sang, finance and accounting director at the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea; Ma Won-chun, head of the National Defense Commission’s planning department; and Byon In-son, director of operations at the military’s General Staff.
 
The three had often accompanied Kim to on-site inspections.
 
The NIS estimated that some 70 North Korean officials have been eliminated since Kim Jong-un rose to power in 2011.
 
Despite recent news reports that Kim ordered the poisoning of his aunt, Kim Kyong-hui, the spy agency said no particular signs have been detected.
 
The agency said the latest purges seem to demonstrate that Kim’s reign of terror is gaining momentum. However, the agency added that despite the fearful atmosphere in the secluded nation, senior officials in the North are growing increasingly skeptical about Kim’s leadership.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.