SEOUL — North Korea has executed its defence chief by putting him in front of an anti-aircraft gun at a firing range, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told lawmakers, the latest in a series of high-level purges since Mr Kim Jong Un took charge in December 2011. General Hyon Yong Chol, 66, who headed the isolated country’s military, was charged with treason, including disobeying Mr Kim and falling asleep during an event at which North Korea’s young leader was present, according to South Korean lawmakers briefed in a closed-door meeting with the spy agency yesterday.

His execution was watched by hundreds of people, they said. It was not clear how the NIS obtained the information and it was not possible to independently verify such reports from within secretive North Korea.

Mr Kim has ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year as punishment for challenging his authority, said the NIS. Around 70 officials have been executed since Mr Kim took over after his father’s death, Yonhap news agency cited the NIS as saying.

Gen Hyon’s execution coincides with the time Russia announced that Mr Kim would not go to Moscow to attend a military parade that was held last Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany because of Pyongyang’s “internal affairs”. The lawmakers said Gen Hyon was executed at a firing range located at the Kanggon Military Training Area, 22km north of Pyongyang.

The United States-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said that, according to satellite images, the range was probably used for an execution by ZPU-4 anti-aircraft guns in October. The target was just 30m away from the weapons, which have a range of 8,000m, it said.

South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Lim Byeong Cheol said the execution of Gen Hyon “appeared to be aimed at consolidating the leadership solely centred around Kim Jong Un by continuing a reign of terror”.

North Korea’s official media introduced Gen Hyon as defence minister for the first time last June, replacing General Jang Jong Nam for unknown reasons and becoming the fourth person to hold the position since Mr Kim’s rise to power. Gen Hyon visited Moscow in mid-April to attend a security seminar and to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu.

North Korea’s official media reported earlier that he took part in a two-day military meeting in Pyongyang through April 25, during which Mr Kim, presumed to be 32 years old, called for the need to bring about “an epochal turn in the training” of the army to increase its “invincible might”.

Gen Hyon was also believed to have voiced complaints against Mr Kim and had not followed his orders several times, said the lawmakers in the South. He was arrested last month and executed three days later without legal proceedings, the NIS said.

Experts on North Korea said there was no sign of instability in Pyongyang, but there could be if the purges continued. “North Korean internal politics is very volatile these days. Internally, there does not seem to be any respect for Kim Jong Un within the core and middle levels of the North Korean leadership,” said Mr Michael Madden, an expert on the country’s leadership and contributor to the 38 North think-tank. AGENCIES