North
Korea: First Kim Jong-un orders execution of
uncle - now it emerges that victim's wife was involved in decision to execute
him
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-korea-executes-kim-jong-uns-powerful-uncle-jang-song-thaek-9001737.html
He was a key member of North Korea's first family, a man
widely seen as regent to leader Kim Jong-un, but in a dramatic twist worthy of
an episode of crime series The Sopranos, the instigators of Jang Song Thaek's
execution may have included his wife.
The final decision to execute Jang, last seen publicly being
frog-marched by armed guards from a special party session last week, was
probably made by Kim, his nephew, and Kim Kyong-hui, his wife, according to
several sources.
News of Jang's execution was accompanied by a string of
extraordinary insults, branding him a "traitor for all ages" and
"despicable human scum" who was "worse than a dog." A 2,700-word state media report of his trial
in a special military tribunal on Thursday said he had admitted to plotting
insurrection and a string of other crimes.
"He let the decadent capitalist lifestyle find its way
to our society by distributing all sorts of pornographic pictures among his
confidants since 2009." The report said Jang led a "dissolute,
depraved life" and had squandered at least 4.6 million euro from state
coffers on gambling. He was executed, probably by firing squad, immediately
after the tribunal.
Jang's killing is the highest-level purge since Kim Jong-un
inherited power from his father Kim Jong-il in 2011 and has left opinion
divided on what it means. Many experts
say Kim had no choice but to remove his powerful but corrupt uncle if he wanted
to graduate from young pretender to dictator
"He had to go," says veteran Pyongyang watcher Andrei Lankov. "To really start running the country Kim
must get rid of the old guard. They are
so much older; they are in their sixties and seventies and he is in his thirties."
But even if Jang's removal was operationally logical, the
violence of his public humiliation and disposal was highly unusual, accepts
Lankov. "One possibility is that he wanted to terrify everyone, to show
that he is young but someone to be afraid of, to show that nobody is
immune," he says. "It might
also reflect his personal animosity to Jang. He did not like the man, who
probably bossed him around."
South
Korea fears Jang's ouster could trigger
political turmoil and a wave of defections by some of the thousands of loyal
cronies he brought onside since marrying the daughter of state founder Kim
il-Song in 1972. The Chosun Ilbo
newspaper says US and Chinese spy agencies are "racing to recruit" a
senior confident of Jang's who has already fled the Pyongyang.
Jang was intermittently at the center of power in North Korea. He
is widely thought to have been purged by his brother-in-law, Kim Jong-il from
2004-6 - punishment for flaunting his opulent cadre's lifestyle. As Kim's health ebbed before his death in
2011, he began leaning on trusted family members - his sister, son and brother-in-law
- during the transfer of hereditary power to his 28-year-old son.
But Jang was always handicapped by his lack of blood ties to
the first family, says the North Korea Strategic Information Service Centre, an
organisation run by elite defectors from the North's government. "The key to succession" in the
North is the Kim bloodline, said Lee Yun-keol, head of the centre. Jang's execution sends a "chilling message"
that it's leadership cannot tolerate challenges to the bloodline. "The
final decision of Jang Song Thaek's ouster was made by Kim Jong-un and Jang's
wife Kim Kyung-hui."
As with most of the North's elite, information on Jang is
sketchy. He was for years head of the
country's internal security, an elite enforcer who locked up enemies of the
state. He was widely seen by analysts as
corrupt and bribable, largely without strong political convictions.
"Precisely as charged, he was a womanizer and substance abuser, accustomed
to being wined and dined," said Bradley K. Martin author of Under the
Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, on the Global Post website.
State news agency KCNA claimed that Jang admitted plotting
to stage a coup using "high-ranking army officers" and other close
allies. "I didn't fix the definite time for the coup," he reportedly
said. "But it was my intention to
concentrate my department and all economic organs on the cabinet and become
premier when the economy goes totally bankrupt and the state is on the verge of
collapse."
The ruthlessness of his purge has taken many analysts by
surprise. "With Jang Song Thaek
gone, there's nobody else to execute," said Victor Cha, a former senior
White House advisor on North Korean affairs, on the online news site
NKnews.org. "When you take out the
key elements of the party and the key elements of the military you're kind of
building from scratch again. It's a very risky strategy."
Jang's wife, who is reportedly ill, has made no public
comment about his death, leaving the narrative of her husband's execution - and
its aftermath - entirely in the hands of state propagandists. The KCNA said the country embraced the
news. "The DPRK army and people are
now advancing toward the rosy future of a thriving socialist nation,
single-heartedly rallied around Kim Jong-un," said a statement. "In
this new era … there is no room for a handful of political careerists and
factionists to live in."
The North
Korea purge: Who was Jang Song Thaek?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-north-korea-purge-who-was-jang-song-thaek/2013/12/13/c5e163ca-641d-11e3-a373-0f9f2d1c2b61_gallery.html#photo=1