…As Taliban threaten 70% of Afghanistan, BBC finds***

North Korea is stepping up its execution of top political officers to prevent the regime from deteriorating under immense pressure caused by international sanctions, a U.S. general said after recent reports suggested that a key member of Kim Jong Un’s inner circle was reported executed by death squad.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, the top U.S. commander in South Korea, said the political figures Kim Jong Un is ordering killed have been accused of corruption.

“We’re seeing some increase in executions, mostly against political officers who are in military units, for corruption,” Brooks said. “[The executions] are really about trying to clamp down as much as possible on something that might be deteriorating and keeping it from deteriorating too quickly.”

The general’s comments come after rumors swirled that Hwang Pyong-so, a vice marshal who held the most senior position in North Korea’s military, was reportedly expelled and “punished” for “impure attitude.” Hwang hasn’t been seen in public since Oct. 13. South Korea’s spy agency first reported in mid-March the top aide and his deputy, Kim Won-hong, were killed out of Kim’s circle, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Kim Won-hong was reportedly sentenced to one of North Korea’s prison camps. As for Hwang, many of Kim Jong Un’s recent actions indicate the man whom the dictator has trusted for about a decade was executed — possibly by the infamous firing squad that also killed Kim’s uncle, Jang Song Thaek.

Brooks also told the Wall Street Journal that North Koreans are defecting via routes that were rare before, such as crossing the Demilitarized Zone. At least two North Korean soldiers have defected through the Joint Security Area in in less than a year — an event that was rarely seen in previous years.

The mounting international sanctions against North Korea since its sixth nuclear test in September have reportedly caused strain in North Korea. The regime’s military scaled back its annual winter military exercises this year. However, the analysts said the scale back doesn’t indicate North Korea’s military capabilities have diminished.

In the meantime, aliban fighters, whom US-led forces spent billions of dollars trying to defeat, are now openly active in 70% of Afghanistan, a BBC study has found.

Months of research across the country show how areas the Taliban threaten or control have surged since foreign combat troops left in 2014.

The Afghan government played down the report, saying it controls most areas.

But recent attacks claimed by Taliban and Islamic State militants have killed scores in Kabul and elsewhere.

Afghan officials and US President Donald Trump responded by ruling out any talks with the Taliban. Last year Mr Trump announced the US military would stay in the country indefinitely.

The BBC investigation – conducted during late 2017 – provides a rare snapshot of the security situation in every Afghan district between 23 August and 21 November.

A network of BBC reporters across Afghanistan spoke to more than 1,200 individual local sources, in every one of the country’s 399 districts, to build up a comprehensive picture of all militant attacks over that period.

These conversations happened either in person or by telephone and all information was checked with at least two and often as many as six other sources. In some cases BBC reporters even went to local bus stations to find people travelling in from remote and inaccessible districts in order to double check the situation there.

The results show that about 15 million people – half the population – are living in areas that are either controlled by the Taliban or where the Taliban are openly present and regularly mount attacks.

The extent to which they have pushed beyond their traditional southern stronghold into eastern, western and northern parts of the country is clearly visible. Areas that have fallen to the Taliban since 2014 include places in Helmand province like Sangin, Musa Qala and Nad-e Ali, which foreign forces fought and died to bring under government control after US-led troops had driven the Taliban from power in 2001. More than 450 British troops died in Helmand between 2001 and 2014.

“When I leave home, I’m uncertain whether I will come back alive,” said one man, Sardar, in Shindand, a western district that suffers weekly attacks. “Explosions, terror and the Taliban are part of our daily life.”

The BBC research also suggests that IS is more active in Afghanistan than ever before, although it remains far less powerful than the Taliban.

Fox News with additional report from BBC