Satellite images reveal North Korea is executing people using anti-aircraft guns in act of 'gut-wrenching viciousness'

Satellite images have revealed how North Korea's brutal regime are using anti-aircraft guns to execute members of the public.

The photos, released by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and AllSource Analysis were taken in October last year and have since been analysed by experts.

They appear to show the Kanggon Military Training Area, based not far from capital city Pyongyang, where six ZPU-4 anti-aircraft guns were used to shoot a line of people located 100 yards away.

Greg Scarlatiou, executive director of HRNK, said: "The most plausible explanation of the scene ... is a gruesome public execution.

"Anyone who has witnessed the damage one single US .50 calibre round does to the human body will shudder just trying to imagine a battery of 24 heavy machine guns being fired at human beings.

"Bodies would be nearly pulverised."

South Korean intelligence agents understand that Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year after they were found guilty of questioning the supreme leader's authority.

Mr Scarlatiou added: "The gut-wrenching viciousness of such an act would make 'cruel and unusual punishment' sound like a gross understatement.

"Public executions are one of the dreadful tools employed in the implementation of the Kim Jong-un regimes's 'fearpolitik'."