The great fall

North Korea: First Kim Jong-un orders
execution of uncle - now it emerges that
victim's wife was involved in decision to
execute him Kim Jong Un's powerful uncle branded
'traitor for all ages' Jang Song Thaek being escorted to court By DAVID MCNEILL Friday 13 December 2013 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."