North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (Reuters Photo)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered the execution of 15 people, including senior officials, this year as punishment for challenging his authority, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday quoting the South's spy agency.
A vice minister for forestry was one of the officials executed for complaining about a state policy, Yonhap quoted an unnamed official from the National Intelligence Service telling a South Korean parliamentary intelligence committee meeting.
South Korea's spy agency also expected Kim to travel to Moscow this month to attend an event marking the end of World War Two, the official was quoted as telling the closed-door meeting.
The visit would be Kim's first overseas trip since he took power in 2011 after the death of his father.
In 2013, Kim purged and executed his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, once considered the second most powerful man in Pyongyang's leadership circle, for corruption and committing crimes damaging to the economy, along with a group of officials close to him.
© Thomson Reuters 2015