"Kim Jong-un executes top negotiator, punishes others, over collapse of talks with Trump"

North Korea has executed its special envoy to the US and punished a number of other foreign ministry officials after the failure of February's Hanoi Summit.

Kim Jong Un supervised the firing, it's understood. Source: AAP / Michael Nigro

North Korea has executed Kim Hyok Chol, its special envoy to the US, and foreign ministry officials who carried out working-level negotiations for the second US-North Korea summit in February, holding them responsible for its collapse, a South Korean newspaper reports.

Kim Yong Chol, a senior official who had been US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's counterpart in the run-up to the summit between President Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, is also said to have been subjected to forced labour and ideological education, the Chosun Ilbo said.

More details from Korean analyst Jung Sik Seo.

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