North Korea publicly EXECUTES 6 officials in front of their families for allowing 13 workers flee to South Korea

North Korea publicly executed six officials in front of their families, a local Pyongyang worker has said. 

They were blamed for the defection of 13 workers at a North Korean-run restaurant in China.

The group of 12 women and one man fled China's eastern port city of Ningbo and defected to South Korea in April. 

Following that the families of the six officials were locked up and then had to watch their public executions on May 5.

It is claimed the workers had tired of Pyongyang's ideological campaigns and had become disillusioned with their home country after watching South Korean television dramas and films. 

They were accepted into South Korea on humanitarian grounds.  

North Korean watcher Choi Seong-yong, who is the chief of Abductees' Family Union, told the Yonhap news agency: 'North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered six officials, including intelligence officials, to be executed publicly on May 5 due to their lack of control over overseas [North Korean] workers.

'North Korea locked the families of the defectors up and forced them to take ideological education at a training facility in Myohyang Mountain, in the northern part of the communist country.' 

As many as 80 government authorities and more than 100 family members were forced to watch the public execution, it is claimed.