A new report by a South Korean think tank claimed that North Korean Dictator Kim Jon Un has ordered the execution of at least 340 people since he took power in 2011.

In a report entitled "The Misgoverning of Kim Jon Un's Five Years in Power," the Institute for National Security Strategy under the National Intelligence Service detailed how the North Korean despot used executions to tighten his grip on power.

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Although North Korea's dictatorial government rarely allows news to come out of the country, tales of Kim's violent executions have sometimes filtered out in the last five years.

Of those reportedly killed, approximately 140 were senior government officials, including military personnel and members of the ruling Korean Worker's Party.

In June this year, North Korea's top education official Kim Yong Jin was also executed by a firing squad on claims that he exercised a bad attitude during the country's Supreme People's Assembly. 

North Korea's Defense Minister Hyon Yong Chol was also killed in May 2015 with an anti-aircraft gun in front of an audience at a school in the country's capital Pyongyang. And Kim even made the minister's family witness his execution.

The North Korean leader also had his uncle executed in 2013 for trying to overthrow the government. The country's media described him as a "traitor for all ages."

According to Hawaii Pacific University professor Seung-Kyun Ko, Kim has a tendency for bluntness and can be quite extreme when dealing with perceived threats.

"During his upbringing, he has been spoiled because he was the son of Kim Jong II. The major danger is there is no one in his leadership circle to restrain him," Ko said.

Ko believes that Kim is desperate to live up to the expectation that he will be a great leader, and in order to achieve that goal, he has been pushing around the country's top leaders to show that he is the boss.

TagsKim Jong Un, North Korea