Former DPRK railway minister reportedly executed
According to Breitbart (via Breitbart):
Former North Korean Railways Minister Kim Yong Sam was executed in March last year for failing to maintain locomotive trains that had been in store for wartime, Radio Free Asia, a nonprofit radio station, reported Wednesday on its Internet edition.
A source on North Korean affairs said Kim got into trouble during an inspection by the National Defense Commission for scrapping locomotive trains that were in store for wartime.
After the inspection, carried out after celebrations were held to mark the country’s 60th birthday on Sept. 9, 2008, Kim was handed over to the State Security Department, report said.
He had been railways minister for 10 years from September, 1998.
The Choson Ilbo has more:
A nationwide campaign is underway recently in North Korea to get rid of photos and publications of executed former senior officials, Radio Free Asia claimed Tuesday.
This campaign was ordered by leader Kim Jong-il on July 2. The North’s Press Censorship Bureau is reportedly destroying documents and materials collected from across the country.
According to RFA, the campaign’s targets include Pak Nam-gi, the former director of the North Korean Workers Party’s Planning and Finance Department who was executed in March over the disastrous currency reform, and former railways minister Kim Yong-sam.
“Railway workers suffering from the food shortage stole copper and aluminum parts from locomotive trains that were in store for wartime and sold them as scrap metal. As a result, about 100 locomotives were scrapped,” it claimed. “This was revealed in an inspection by the National Defense Commission in 2008.” Kim Yong-sam was then taken to the State Security Department and executed in March the following year, it added.
Kim Yong-sam was appointed railways minister in September 1998 but has not been seen in public since October 2008, when he was replaced by current minister Jon Kil-su.
A Unification Ministry official said rumors about his execution are “rampant.”
Read the full stories here:
Former N. Korean railways minister Kim Yong Sam executed: report
Kyodo (via Breitbart)
7/14/2010
N.Korea’s Ex-Railways Minister Executed
Choson Ilbo
7/15/2010
