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 Jang Song Thaek, considered the second-most powerful man in the
secretive North, was killed just days ahead of the second
anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il, the father of North Korea's
current ruler.
The execution coincided with Kim Jong Un — the third Kim to rule
North Korea — suddenly being portrayed in state media as the image
of his father rather than his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, who is still
revered as the founder of the nation.
Kim Jong Il was blamed by some for the 1990s famine that killed a
million people.
The North's KCNA news agency released pictures on Friday of a
handcuffed Jang being manhandled by guards and said that he had been
executed for trying to seize power and for driving the economy "into
an uncontrollable catastrophe".
Jang was pictured in the ruling party's Rodong Sinmun newspaper
without his Kim Il Sung loyalty badge on his lapel when he was led
away, which would indicate his disloyalty to North Koreans who all
wear lapel badges.
"Jang Song Thaek has been purged in a way that suggests Kim Jong Un
wanted to make a point," Ruediger Frank, a North Korea expert, wrote
in an article on Johns Hopkins University's U.S. Korea Institute
website 38 North on Friday.
The dictatorial North has been run by the same family since 1948.
Its economy, which was once larger than South Korea's, is now a
fortieth the size of its prosperous neighbor. Its 24 million people
regularly suffer food shortages, according to the United Nations.
The younger Kim has been credited in the North's media with
presiding over a powerful military state as well as an economic
revival.
INTERNAL DIVISIONS, COMPETING FACTIONS
Jang was married to Kim Jong Un's paternal aunt and is believed to
have been 67 years old. He had been purged in 2004 and disappeared
from public view until 2006, but became a vice chairman of the
powerful National Defence Commission and a member of the ruling
Workers' Party politburo.
He had visited Beijing, North Korea's only major ally, and was in
charge of economic projects as well running a string of illicit
money-raising schemes for Pyongyang, according to North Korea
experts and defectors.
While North Korea has purged many officials in its 65-year history,
it is rare that anyone so powerful had been removed in such a public
manner — suggesting a recognition of internal divisions and of
competing factions surrounding Kim Jong Un.
"This is a man who could have competently executed a coup in North
Korea," said Mike Madden, an expert on the North's power structure
and author of the North Korea Leadership Watch website and blog.
The commentary from KCNA said that Jang had been plotting to
overthrow Kim Jong Un and had "a fantastic dream to become
premier... to grab the supreme power of the party and state".
"The accused Jang brought together undesirable forces and formed a
faction as the boss of a modern day factional group for a long time
and thus committed such hideous crime as attempting to overthrow the
state," KCNA said.
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"The special military tribunal of the Ministry of State Security of
the DPRK ... ruled that he would be sentenced to death according to
it. The decision was immediately executed," it said, using the
North's title of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korean politics are virtually impenetrable from outside and
Jang could also easily have been purged over a falling out with Kim,
or even with his wife.
There are signs that the North's 1.2-million strong army has sought
to assert power and that Jang ran foul of Vice Marshal Choe Ryong
Hae, the top political operative for the armed forces.
Earlier this week, North Korea said it had stripped Jang of his
power and positions, accusing him of criminal acts including
mismanagement of the state financial system, womanizing and alcohol
abuse.
"From long ago, Jang had a dirty political ambition. He dared not
raise his head when Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il were alive," KCNA
said.
"He began revealing his true colors, thinking that it was just the
time for him to realize his wild ambition," it said.
Regional powers have watched the purge of Jang and his associates
for implications to regional security.
South Korea's presidential office said it had held a ministerial
meeting to review the developments, although the government in Seoul
said it had not detected any unusual military activity in the North.
The young Kim, believed to be about 30, has carried out two
long-range missile tests and a nuclear weapons test in defiance of
United Nations sanctions since he took office two years ago.
At the same time as pursuing his father's nuclear and military
ambitions, he has been portrayed as the North's "master builder" for
presiding over an attempt to revive its moribund economy.
The United States said it was following the developments in North
Korea and consulting with allies in the region.
"If confirmed, this is another example of the extreme brutality of
the North Korean regime," said White House National Security Council
spokesman Patrick Ventrell.
(Additional reporting by James Pearson in Hong Kong and Warren Strobel and Matt Spetalnick in Washington;
editing by Paul Tait)
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