North Korea has purged a deputy foreign minister as punishment for the defection of a high-ranking diplomat, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said.
Kim Jong Un recently banished Vice-Foreign Minister Kung Sok Ung and his family to a farming area.
The move came after the mid-year defection to South Korea of Thae Yong Ho, who was second in command at the North Korean Embassy in London, the paper reported today, citing a person familiar with North Korean affairs it did not identify.
South Korea is checking the report, Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon Hee said at a briefing. Kung oversaw embassies in Europe before being removed from his post, JoongAng said.
Thae's defection prompted a probe within North Korea's Foreign Ministry and led to four other officials being expelled from Pyongyang, the report said.