A North Korean army sergeant killed two family members of his company commander last month after harboring hatred for receiving public criticism of his misdeeds, a Seoul-based news outlet said Monday.

Citing a source from the North's Ryanggang Province, the Daily NK reported that the master sergeant of a border garrison unit in Hyesan city suffocated the mother of the company commander to death and then killed his daughter by throwing her into a water tank.

According to the news outlet specializing in the communist country, the captain of the company located near the border with China publicly criticized the noncommissioned officer in the presence of other members of the unit for his wrongdoings.

The sergeant was raising money to be used after discharge from the armed forces by illegally selling food and clothes taken secretly from the unit, the media report said.

Initially, the sergeant went to the officer's home to kill the captain, but after failing to find him there, he attacked his family in a fit of anger.

The Daily NK claimed the company commander and master sergeant maintained good relations as they have to work with each other.

It said recently, their relations deteriorated as the incumbent Kim Jong-un regime has been intensifying its crack down on smuggling and defections, the media outlet said. (Yonhap)