North Korean leader Kim Jong Un 'executes senior officials' after failed Trump summit
Kim Jong-un has executed his envoy to the U.S. for 'betraying the supreme leader' as part of ruthless purge of officials after the dictator's failed summit with Donald Trump, it has been claimed.
Kim Hyok Chol is said to have been shot by a firing squad in March at Mirim Airport for being 'won over to the US,' during nuclear negotiations with Trump.
The top diplomat, who accompanied Kim on his private train ahead of the summit in Vietnam, was one of four senior foreign ministry officials executed at the airfield, a source told South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.
The other officials were not named, but all allegedly became U.S. 'spies' after the failed second negotiations between Trump and Kim Jong-un ended abruptly in February.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this morning that Washington was checking the reports.
The reports came after Rodong Sinmum North Korean state newspaper published an editorial warning of punishments for those who "only memorise words of loyalty" towards the leader.
It read: "Acting like one is revering the leader in front [of others] but dreaming of something else when one turns around, is an anti-party, anti-revolutionary act that has thrown away the moral fidelity toward the leader, and such people will not avoid the stern judgement of the revolution.
"There are traitors and turncoats who only memorise words of loyalty toward the Leader and even change according to the trend of the time."
The North Korean leader is said to have killed dozens of senior officials since he came to power in 2011, including his half-brother and uncle over an alleged Chinese-backed plot to oust him.
Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea's special representative for U.S. affairs, was reportedly executed by firing squad after he allegedly became a 'spy' for the US when talks broke down between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un
Read more from Daily Mail