DPRK executes 'slogan tree' smuggler

---

SEOUL, Aug 5 (AFP): North Korea has publicly executed a trade official for chopping down and smuggling cherished "slogan trees" on which founding leader Kim Il- Sung reputedly carved anti-Japanese messages, a report said today.
Senior local timber trader Oh Mun-Hyok was shot dead and four accomplices sentenced to life imprisonment on July 23, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, quoting unnamed diplomatic sources.
Local government and trade officials were forced to watch Oh's public execution at Yonsa in the northern province of North Hamkyong, it said.
The punishment was harsh because the timber smuggled to China included "slogan trees" on which Kim Il-Sung and his followers had allegedly carved messages against Japan's colonial rule in 1920s or 1930s, it said.