North Korea reportedly executed former finance official Pak Nam-gi, who was held responsible for the failed currency reform late last year amid growing public unrest over the faltering economy.
The former director of financial planning under the Workers' Party was executed by a firing squad in Pyongyang last week on charges of treason for "intentionally ruining the national economy," but most North Koreans believed he was made a scapegoat, Yonhap News said citing multiple sources.
South Korea's Unification Ministry said it was unable to officially confirm the report. Seoul customarily refrains from confirming anything concerning the Pyongyang government unless the North makes an official announcement.
"The failure of the currency reform caused social unrest and had a negative impact on Kim Jong-il regime's father-to-son succession, so Pyongyang blamed it all on Pak," an unnamed source was quoted as saying by Yonhap News.
"Pak's case is reminiscent of Suh Gwan-hui, former Workers' Party secretary of agriculture, who was executed during the severe famine in the 1990s."
The North charged him of espionage and had him shot to death in front of tens of thousands of people in 1997 when the nation was suffering a murderous famine often referred to as the "arduous march."
The North reportedly described Pak as "a landlord's son who snuck into the revolutionary ranks to intentionally wreck the economy."
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