North Korea's defence minister has been publicly executed with an anti-aircraft gun for falling asleep during military meetings and answering back to leader Kim Jong-Un.
Hyon Yong-Chol, 66, who was named head of North Korea's military in 2012, was killed in front of hundreds of bloodthirsty officials at a military camp in the capital Pyongyang on April 30.
It is not the first time a ZPU-4 anti-aircraft gun has been used for executions in North Korea, with recently released satellite images showing a number of unidentified people being killed using the brutal method at the same camp last October.
Those images showed the targets just 100 feet from the guns, which have a range of 26,000 feet.
Han Ki-Beom, deputy director of South Korea's National Intelligence Agency, told a parliamentary committee that hundreds of officials watched the execution in Pyongyang on April 30.
The intelligence service told politicians that Hyon was killed by an anti-aircraft gun at Kang Kon Military Academy - a method cited in various unconfirmed reports as being reserved for senior officials who the leadership wishes to make examples of.
Hyon was apparently caught falling asleep during formal military events and is said to have also spoken back to Kim Jong-Un on several occasions.
Lawmaker Shin Kyoung-min, who attended the parliamentary briefing during which news of the execution was announced, said the NIS believed it to be true.
The execution was initially reported by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, although reports from North Korea are impossible to independently confirm.
The lawmakers said Hyon was executed at a firing range at the Kanggon Military Training Area, which is located 14 miles north of the capital Pyongyang.
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