North Korea reportedly executes foreign ministry officials

North Korean officials executed the country’s special envoy to the United States in a crackdown on officials who led the failed summit earlier this year in Vietnam between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, according to an unconfirmed report in a South Korean newspaper on Friday. Chosun Ilbo reported that the communist nation charged Kim Hyok Chol and four other foreign ministry executives with spying for the United States and executed them in March at Mirim Airport in Pyongyang. Kim Yong Chol, who was the counterpart to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, received forced labor and “ideological education,” according to the newspaper.

Neither South Korea nor North Korea confirmed the report, which cited an unidentified source. South Korean media has in the past incorrectly reported the executions of North Korean officials who later showed up next to the country’s leader. The United States is looking into the report, Pompeo said during a news conference Friday in Berlin.