North Korea has purged a vice foreign minister, punishing the 72-year-old and his family with farm work after the nation's No. 2 official in London defected this summer, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said Wednesday.
The daily said Kung Sok Ung, 72, and four other ranking officials in charge of European affairs were expelled from Pyongyang on the orders of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"Since late July, after deputy ambassador Thae Yong Ho's defection, there has been extensive monitoring of Vice Minister Kung Sok Ung," the JoongAng Ilbo quoted a source as saying. "He took responsibility for the management of the embassies in the European region and was purged."