North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the execution by firing squad of four foreign ministry officials after the failure of his Hanoi summit with Donald Trump, a report has claimed.

The officials were reportedly executed after the February talks between North Korea and the US came to an end without any deal being made.

Pyongyang had accused the four officials of selling information to Washington before the Hanoi summit, according to a Japanese news agency.

The executions, which included a diplomat from North Korea’s embassy in Hanoi, have not been verified.

Asia Press claimed its reporter spoke to a trade official who was told the rumour about the executions.

It is claimed that the executions were watched by members of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and Korean People’s Army.

The Hanoi summit had the aim of achieving denuclearisation on the Korean Peninusla and North Korea was hoping to have its sanctions lifted.

When the talks failed, Washington insisted that dialogue with North Korea would continue and that the collapse was not a major disappointment.

Following the summit, President Trump said: “Kim is a person I’ve gotten to know very well, and respect and hopefully, and I really believe over a period of time, a lot of tremendous things will happen.

Kim arrived in Russia on Wednesday, April 24 to discuss bilateral ties with President Vladimir Putin.

North Korea’s leader has said he was hoping for a “successful and useful” visit where he hopes to discuss the situation in the Korean Peninsula. </s> The hermit state has reportedly executed four foreign ministry officials after Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump’s latest summit, held in February in Vietnam, failed. The officials are thought to have been executed by firing squad in Pyongyang earlier in April. But according to Japanese agency AsiaPress, rumours have circulated that the officials were accused by North Korea of selling information to the US ahead of the summit.

A trade official in the secretive country believe this caused the Hanoi summit to fail and ordered the death of the officials. The deceased officials are said to have also included a diplomat from the North Korean embassy in Hanoi. The country’s media is state controlled, while communication with the rest of the world is restricted. Punishment for anyone sharing information can be severe.

The news agency said one of its reporters had spoken to a trade official as they travelled to Pyongyang from China earlier this month. A source who lives close to the border told the agency that four officials were executed in Pyongyang at the beginning of April for leaking information. It was also claimed the execution was watched by members of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea and Korean People's Army.

Yonhap news agency reported North Korea had replaced Kim Jong Un's right-hand man who steered nuclear talks with the United States. Kim Yong Chol, Mike Pompeo’s Korean counterpart, was removed as head of the United Front Department, the North Korean Workers' Party apparatus that traditionally oversees ties with South Korea and increasingly with the United States, reported. A South Korean lawmaker said The NK Worker’s Party blamed the official for the failed summit between the two countries.

A spokeswoman for the US State Department said it was aware of the reports but withheld further comment except to add: "As we have said before, we remain ready to engage in constructive negotiations." Meanwhile the North Korean leader arrived at Russia’s Vladivostok station by armoured train on Wednesday at the start of a state visit to gain the support of President Vladimir Putin. Ahead of the talks on Thursday, Kim told Russian state TV through an interpreter: "I hope that we can discuss concrete questions about peace negotiations on the Korean peninsula, and our bilateral relations." </s> North Korea executed four officials from its foreign ministry after Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump's latest summit failed, a new report has claimed.

The officials are said to have been killed by a firing squad in Pyongyang earlier this month after Kim and Trump's talks in Vietnam broke off without a deal.

A Japanese press agency reported that the rumours were spreading through the secretive country after it spoke to a trade official who recently visited North Korea and a source inside the hermit state.

According to the report, North Korea had accused the four officials of selling information to the US before the Hanoi summit, causing it to fail.

The four who were shot dead, according to the rumour, are said to include a diplomat from North Korea's embassy in Hanoi.

However, Japan's Asia Press, which reported the information on Wednesday along with South Korean media, said the claims of the apparent executions have not been verified.

The verification of claims out of North Korea is very difficult given the country's secrecy and that its media is controlled by the state. Communication with the outside world is severely restricted.

Asia Press said one of its reporters spoke to a trade official who heard the rumour when they travelled to Pyongyang from China in mid-April.

The execution was watched by members of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea and Korean People's Army, it is claimed.

The source told Asia Press that the officials were accused of selling information to the US government before Kim and Trump met in Hanoi in late February.

For the US, the talks were aimed at achieving denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula, while North Korea was seeking to have crippling sanctions lifted.

Neither aim was achieved and the talks abruptly broke off.

The Hanoi summit was held after talks in Singapore last year also failed to produce a deal.

According to the rumour, the officials who were executed were blamed for the summit's failure.

But there was speculation that the claims were fabricated in an attempt to shift the responsibility for the failure off of Kim and onto officials who allegedly betrayed the leader.

In early April, it was reported Kim had visited his father's birthplace, the sacred Paektu Mountain - a trip he traditionally makes before making big decisions.

His uncle Jang Song-thaek, 67, was executed a month after he visited the mountain in November 2013.

Kim, meanwhile, arrived in Russia on Wednesday ahead of his meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. </s> North Korea has reportedly executed several Foreign Ministry officials, including its special envoy to the U.S., over the collapse of dictator Kim Jong-un’s Vietnam summit with President Trump.

“Kim Hyok-chol was investigated and executed at Mirim Airport with four foreign ministry officials in March,” an unnamed North Korean officials told a South Korean newspaper for Friday’s editions.

Another official, Kim Yong-chol, was punished with forced labor and “ideological education,” according to the Chosun Ilbo paper.

Other purge victims, according to a Reuters news agency translation of the Korean newspaper’s report are Kim Song-hye, who helped oversee working-level negotiations, and Shin Hye-yong, Kim Jong-un’s interpreter, who was blamed for a translation error.

Those two individuals have been sent to political prison camps, Chosun Ilbo reported. </s> SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea executed its nuclear envoy to the United States as part of a purge of officials who steered negotiations for a failed summit between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, a South Korean newspaper said on Friday.

Kim Hyok Chol was executed in March at Mirim Airport in Pyongyang, along with four foreign ministry officials after they were charged with spying for the United States, the Chosun Ilbo reported, citing an unidentified source with knowledge of the situation.

“He was accused of spying for the United States for poorly reporting on the negotiations without properly grasping U.S. intentions,” the source was quoted as saying.

The February summit in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, the second between Kim and Trump, failed to reach a deal because of conflicts over U.S. calls for complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and North Korean demands for sanctions relief.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the report. Previously, some North Korean officials who were reported to have been executed or purged reappeared later with new titles.

A spokeswoman at South Korea’s Unification Ministry declined to comment. An official at the presidential Blue House in Seoul said it was inappropriate to comment on an unverified report.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders declined to comment on the reports, saying, “I am not going to comment on intelligence one way or another.”

“I can tell you we are monitoring the situation and continuing to stay focused on our ultimate goal, which is denuclearization,” she told reporters in Washington.

The United States is attempting to check on the reports of the envoy’s execution, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during his visit to Berlin on Friday

When asked about reports of a “shakeup” of Kim Jong Un’s negotiating team in a May 5 interview with ABC News, Pompeo said it did appear that his future counterpart would be somebody else “but we don’t know that for sure.”

A diplomatic source told Reuters there were signs Kim Hyok Chol and other officials were punished, but there was no evidence they were executed and they may have been sent to a labor camp for re-education.

The newspaper reported that other officials had been punished, but not executed.

Kim Yong Chol, Kim Jong Un’s right-hand man and the counterpart to Pompeo before the Hanoi summit, had been sent to a labor and reeducation camp in Jagang Province near the Chinese border, the Chosun Ilbo reported.

Officials who worked with Kim Yong Chol have been out of the public eye since the summit, while seasoned diplomats who appeared to have been sidelined, including vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui, were seen returning to the spotlight.

A South Korean lawmaker told Reuters in April that Kim Yong Chol had been removed from a key party post.

RISE AND FALL

Kim Hyok Chol was seen as a rising star when he was appointed to spearhead working-level talks with U.S. nuclear envoy Stephen Biegun weeks before the Hanoi summit.

However, little was known about his expertise or his role in the talks. The four executed alongside him included diplomats working on relations with Vietnam, the Chosun report said.

FILE PHOTO - Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea's special representative for U.S. affairs, leaves the Government Guesthouse in Hanoi, Vietnam, February 23, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

“This is a man who might provide some tactical advice to the leader but is otherwise a message bearer with little negotiating or policymaking latitude,” said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the Washington-based Stimson Centre.

“Instead, they put in someone like Kim Hyok Chol to insulate Choe Son Hui and more substantive diplomatic personnel, to a certain degree he is expendable and his superiors are not.”

The penalized members of Kim Yong Chol’s team included Kim Song Hye, who led the preparations, and Sin Hye Yong, a newly elevated interpreter for the Hanoi summit. They were said to have been detained in a camp for political prisoners, the newspaper said.

The diplomatic source said Kim Song Hye’s punishment seemed inevitable because she was a “prime author” of the North’s plan to secure sanctions relief in return for dismantling the Yongbyon main nuclear complex.

The idea was rejected by the United States which demanded a comprehensive roadmap for denuclearization.

Kim Song Hye had also worked closely with Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s younger sister and a senior party official whom Kim Song Hye accompanied to South Korea for the Winter Olympics last year.

Kim Yo Jong was also lying low, the paper reported, citing an unidentified South Korean government official.

Madden, however, said Kim Yo Jong’s status was unchanged as Kim Jong Un’s top aide, citing her attendance at key party meetings in April and appearance in state media reports.

Sin Hye Yong was charged with making critical interpretation mistakes that included missing an unspecified “last-minute offer” the North Korean leader supposedly made as Trump was about to walk out, Chosun reported.

‘TWO-FACED’

Slideshow (3 Images)

North Korea’s official party mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun warned on Thursday that “two-faced” officials would face the “stern judgment of the revolution”.

“It is an anti-Party, anti-revolutionary act to pretend to be revering the leader in front of him when you actually dream of something else,” it said in a commentary.

Hong Min, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said it was possible Kim Hyok Chol and other officials faced some penalty but further verification was needed.

“Executing or completely removing people like him would send a very bad signal to the United States because he was the public face of the talks and it could indicate they are negating all they have discussed,” Hong said. </s> North Korea executed its special envoy to the United States following the collapse of the second summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, a South Korean newspaper reported Friday.

[SEOUL] North Korea executed its special envoy to the United States following the collapse of the second summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, a South Korean newspaper reported Friday.

The Chosun Ilbo said Kim Hyok Chol, who laid the groundwork for the Hanoi meeting and accompanied Kim on his private train, was executed by firing squad for "betraying the supreme leader" after he was turned by the US.

"Kim Hyok Chol was executed in March at Mirim Airport along with four senior foreign ministry officials following an investigation," the newspaper quoted an unidentified source as saying.

The other officials were not named.

Kim Hyok Chol was the North's counterpart of US special representative Stephen Biegun in the run-up to the Hanoi summit in February.

South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations, declined to comment on the report.

The paper also said Kim Jong Un's interpreter Shin Hye Yong was sent to a prison camp for a mistake at the summit.

She failed to translate Kim's new proposal when Trump declared "no deal" and walked away from the table, Chosun reported, citing another unnamed diplomatic source.

Kim Jong Un and Mr Trump left the Vietnamese capital without a deal after they failed to reach agreement on rolling back Pyongyang's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

The North has since sought to raise the pressure and carried out two short-range missile tests in May.

Senior party official Kim Yong Chol, the North's counterpart to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in nuclear talks, was also sent to a labour camp, the paper said.

In April, South Korea's parliamentary intelligence committee said Kim Yong Chol had been censured over his handling of the Hanoi summit, despite the fact he had recently been named a member of the State Affairs Commission, a supreme governing body chaired by Kim Jong Un.

News of the reported purge came as North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, mouthpiece of the ruling party, on Thursday warned that officials who committed anti-party or anti-revolutionary acts would face the "stern judgement of the revolution".

Previous South Korean reports of North Korean purges and executions have later proved inaccurate.

The Chosun Ilbo itself incorrectly reported in 2013 that Hyon Song Wol, head of the North's Samjiyon Orchestra, was executed by firing squad for distributing and watching pornographic content.

And the Unification Ministry also mistakenly announced in February 2016 that Ri Yong Gil, chief of the general staff of the North Korean People's Army, had been executed. </s> North Korea has executed five officials for their part in the failed second summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to a South Korean newspaper.

Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea's special envoy to the U.S., was executed by firing squad in March for being "won over by the American imperialists to betray the supreme leader", according to the Chosun Ilbo.

The paper also claimed that four other North Korean Foreign Ministry officials were executed that same month because of the breakdown of the February summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, but did not provide details.

JAMES CARAFANO: TRUMP AND KIM - WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON? LET'S HANDICAP NEXT STEPS WITH NORTH KOREA

Seoul's spy service said it could not confirm the report, while the presidential Blue House said that "it's inappropriate to make hasty judgments or comments."

Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State, told reporters in Berlin that he had seen the reports and the U.S. was "doing our best to check it out."

JOY BEHAR LIKENS TRUMP TO A 'MOBSTER' AFTER 'DISGRACEFUL' COMMENTS ABOUT BIDEN AND NORTH KOREA

Trump’s much-anticipated summit with Kim ended abruptly and without the two leaders signing any agreements over nuclear disarmament.

Top Kim aide Kim Yong Chol is reportedly undergoing hard labor for his role in the breakdown.

He had been Kim’s most trusted policy adviser and was removed from one of his posts.

He even was seen in photos with President Trump at the White House over the past year, delivering letters from the North Korean dictator.

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Kim Yong Chol has been North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator and the counterpart of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo since Kim entered nuclear talks with the U.S. early last year.

Since the Hanoi nuclear summit between Trump and Kim ended in failure, North Korea has again tested weapons and boosted its belligerent rhetoric toward American and South Korean officials.

Fox News' Bradford Betz and the Associated Press contributed to this story. </s> SEOUL: North Korea executed its special envoy to the United States following the collapse of the second summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, a South Korean newspaper reported on Friday.

The Chosun Ilbo said Kim Hyok Chol, who laid the groundwork for the Hanoi meeting and accompanied Kim on his private train, was executed by firing squad for "betraying the supreme leader" after he was "won over to the US" during pre-summit negotiations.

"Kim Hyok Chol was executed in March at Mirim Airport along with four senior foreign ministry officials following an investigation," the newspaper quoted an unidentified source as saying. The other officials were not named.

Asked about the account, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington was trying to verify it. "We’ve seen the reporting to which you’re referring. We’re doing our best to check it out," he told reporters on a visit to Berlin.

"I don’t have anything else to add to that today." Kim Hyok Chol was the North’s counterpart of US special representative Stephen Biegun in the run-up to the Hanoi summit in February. South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations, declined to comment on the report.

Some previous South Korean reports of North Korean purges and executions have later proved inaccurate. The paper also said Kim Jong Un’s interpreter Shin Hye Yong was sent to a prison camp for a mistake at the summit.

She failed to translate Kim’s new proposal when Trump declared "no deal" and walked away from the table, Chosun reported, citing another unnamed diplomatic source. Kim Jong Un and Trump left the Vietnamese capital without a deal after they failed to reach agreement on rolling back Pyongyang’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

The North has since sought to raise the pressure and carried out two short-range missile tests in May. Senior party official Kim Yong Chol, the North’s counterpart to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in nuclear talks, was also sent to a labour camp, the paper said. </s> North Korea carried out a purge of its top officials, holding them responsible for the collapse of the second United States-North Korea summit, reported South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, according to Reuters.

The summit, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, was cut short and failed to produce a joint agreement.

U.S. President Donald Trump had rejected Kim’s offer to shut down Yongbyon — a key nuclear facility — in return for sanctions to be “lifted in their entirety”.

However, Trump also blamed the collapse of the talks on the fact that his former lawyer Michael Cohen was questioned during an open hearing on the same day as the summit.

Despite it being hyped by North Korean state media, with possible sanctions relief to help alleviate North Korea’s economic woes, Kim ultimately returned home with nothing to show for the trip.

Since the breakdown of the summit, nuclear talks have also stalled.

The officials who were reportedly executed include North Korea’s special envoy to the U.S., Kim Hyok-chol.

Kim, who acted as a negotiations counterpart to the U.S. special representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun, was charged with spying for the U.S.

Chosun Ilbo, quoting an unnamed North Korean source, said he was investigated and executed at Mirim Airport in March, along with four foreign ministry officials who carried out working-level negotiations for the Hanoi summit in February.

Lee Seong-hyon, a researcher at the South Korea-based think tank Sejong Instite, told the Financial Times that ‘bloodshed’ of this sort is very normal under Kim’s rule.

The purging was also said to be carried out by Kim Jong-un to divert attention from growing discontent in the totalitarian state.

Kim Yong-chol, Kim Jong-un’s right-hand man and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s counterpart in the lead-up to the Hanoi summit, was sentenced to forced labour in Jagang Province, a remote northern province, Chosun Ilbo reported.

He was also subjected to ideological education.

Kim Song-hye, a senior female nuclear negotiator who worked with Kim Hyok-chol, was also reportedly sent to a political prison camp.

And Shin Hye-yong, the translator at the Hanoi summit was also reportedly sent to a prison camp for undermining Kim Jong-un’s authority by making a critical translation mistake.

Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, who assisted him in Hanoi, was also told to lie low, according to an unnamed South Korean official quoted in Chosun Ilbo.

South Korean analysts have speculated in recent weeks that Kim may be planning a reshuffle or a purge of his negotiating team following the Hanoi summit.

Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, published a commentary on Thursday that warned against “traitors” who only “memorise words of loyalty towards the Leader”, but change according to “the trend of time”.

Chosun Ilbo said this is the first time since the 2013 execution of Kim Jong-un’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, that terms such as “anti-party” and “stern judgment” appeared in Rodong Sinmun. </s> North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un reportedly executed four senior communist officials via firing squad following his failed meeting with President Donald Trump in Vietnam, according to a report from the Japanese news agency Asia Press on Wednesday.

The agency spoke with a North Korean trade official who heard the rumor about the executions, reportedly ordered by Kim Jong-un after he failed to secure the lifting of sanctions following his meeting with President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February. The official also claimed that members of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and the Korean People’s Army were forced to watch the executions.

The meeting, convened amid ongoing peace negotiations between the two countries, was eventually cut short after the two sides failed to reach an agreement about lifting sanctions in exchange for the halting and eventual dismantlement of the country’s aggressive nuclear program.

“Chairman Kim and myself, we want to do the right deal,” Trump said at the time. “Speed is not important. What’s important is that we do the right deal.”

When asked whether he was serious about denuclearizing his country, Kim told reporters: “If I weren’t willing to do that, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Although the report cannot be independently verified, the 35-year-old has executed countless communist officials since seizing power in 2012, including his own uncle. The regime also routinely executes those deemed insufficiently loyal to it or those charged with “crimes” such as practicing Christianity or watching foreign films.

Despite the Kim regime’s atrocious human rights record, President Donald Trump has publicly displayed a warm attitude towards the young dictator, revealing they have gotten to know each other very well and talking up a potentially prosperous economic future for the communist state.

“Kim is a person I’ve gotten to know very well, and respect and hopefully, and I really believe over a period of time, a lot of tremendous things will happen,” he said following the last summit. “I think North Korea has tremendous potential.”

On Wednesday, Kim arrived in the Russian city of Vladivostok to hold bilateral talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who has long been a steadfast ally of the communist regime since the days of Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il.

“I came to Russia with the warm sentiments of our people I hope that this visit will be successful and useful,” Kim said. “I hope that during negotiations with President Putin I will be able to discuss issues of the settlement on the Korean Peninsula and the development of our bilateral relations in detail.”

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com
Asia Press reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the execution by firing squad of four foreign ministry officials following the failure of his February Hanoi summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, after accusing them of "selling information to the U.S." before the summit.