{"id":644229,"date":"2019-05-31T07:38:09","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T07:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"
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South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo claimed North Korea executed its special envoy to the United States following the collapse of the second summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The newspaper said Kim Hyok Chol, who laid the groundwork for the Hanoi meeting and accompanied Kim on his private train, was executed by firing squad for \u201cbetraying the supreme leader\u201d after he was \u201cwon over to the US\u201d during pre-summit negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cKim Hyok Chol was executed in March at Mirim Airport along with four senior foreign ministry officials following an investigation,\u201d the newspaper quoted an unidentified source as saying.<\/p>\n

The other officials executed were not identified.<\/p>\n

Kim Hyok Chol was the North\u2019s counterpart of US special representative Stephen Biegun in the run-up to the Hanoi summit in February.<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations, declined to comment on the report.<\/p>\n

Some previous South Korean reports of North Korean purges and executions have later proved inaccurate.<\/p>\n

The paper also said Kim Jong Un\u2019s interpreter Shin Hye Yong was sent to a prison camp for a mistake at the summit.<\/p>\n

She failed to translate Kim\u2019s new proposal when Trump declared \u201cno deal\u201d and walked away from the table, Chosun reported, citing another unnamed diplomatic source.<\/p>\n

Kim Jong Un and Trump left the Vietnamese capital without a deal after they failed to reach agreement on rolling back Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.<\/p>\n

The North has since sought to raise the pressure and carried out two short-range missile tests in May.<\/p>\n

Senior party official Kim Yong Chol, the North\u2019s counterpart to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in nuclear talks, was also sent to a labour camp, the paper said.<\/p>\n

In April, South Korea\u2019s parliamentary intelligence committee said Kim Yong Chol had been censured over his handling of the Hanoi summit, despite the fact he had recently been named a member of the State Affairs Commission, a supreme governing body chaired by Kim Jong Un.<\/p>\n

The Chosun Ilbo itself incorrectly reported in 2013 that Hyon Song Wol, head of the North\u2019s Samjiyon Orchestra, was executed by firing squad for distributing and watching pornographic content.<\/p>\n

And the Unification Ministry also mistakenly announced in February 2016 that Ri Yong Gil, chief of the general staff of the North Korean People\u2019s Army, had been executed.<\/p>\n

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