North Korea's Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol has been executed for showing disloyalty to leader Kim Jong-un, South Korea's spy agency has told parliament.
MPs were told Mr Hyon was killed on 30 April by anti-aircraft fire in front of an audience of hundreds, the Yonhap news agency reports.
It said Mr Hyon had fallen asleep during an event attended by Kim Jong-un and had not carried out instructions.
South Korea said a senior military officer was also killed.
The news comes weeks after the reported execution of 15 senior officials.
Among them were two vice-ministers who had challenged Mr Kim over his policies and members of an orchestra, the South's National Intelligence Agency (NIS) said at the time.
Hyon Yong-chol, as defence minister, was as close to Kim Jong-un as it is possible to get.
Such a public and brutal method of execution as obliteration by anti-aircraft gun would emphasise the cost of disloyalty.
Intelligence reports always have to be treated with scepticism but, in this case, the claims of the South Korean spy agency will be easy to verify. If they are not true, the defence minister would appear again in public.
Earlier, the South Korean agency said that senior officials were being executed at the rate of one a week. It all adds up to a picture of a leader in Pyongyang who feels very insecure and who is dangerous in his insecurity.
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