N.Korea brutally punishes officials: Report

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - Sad with failure of last February's Hanoi summit, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is reported to have shot dead his former point-man on U.S., media reports said on Friday.

Kim Hyok-chol, who represented Pyongyang in talks with Washington’s Special Representative Stephen Biegun, was "shot at Mirim Airport in March with four other senior officials on charges of spying for America," Seoul-based daily Chosunilbo reported.

North Korea was yet to respond to the claims made by the newspaper.

The report said that Kim Yong-chol, the right-hand man of North Korea's leader was "sent to a labor and re-education camp."

Kim held a second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi on Feb. 27 and 28, however, without reaching any substantial results.

Trump left the meeting half-way, saying he could not agree to all of Kim's demands.

"Kim Jong-un is believed to have ordered the purge, which also swept up other officials in the negotiations, to contain internal unrest and mounting public dissatisfaction over the failed summit," the newspaper claimed.

Kim Yong-chol is said to be imprisoned for hard labor in Jagang Province while Kim Song-hye of the United Front Department was reported to be held in a political prison camp.

Hanoi summit interpreter Shin Hye-yong has also been sent to prison for "tarnishing the authority" of Kim Jong-un for making an interpreting error, and is said to have asked her confidant and sister Kim Yo-jong "to lie low".

She has not been seen in public since the failed summit.

The Chosunilbo referred to commentary by North Korea's official newspaper "Rodong Sinmun" which referred to "anti-party, anti-revolutionary acts" against Kim Jong-un.

"Acting like one is revering the leader in front 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 judgment of the revolution," the Pyongyang-based daily said.