North Korea says leader's uncle was executed
December 13, 2013 -- Updated 0325 GMT (1125 HKT)
In an image taken from footage
shown by North Korea's KCTV and released by South Korea's Yonhap news
agency on December 9, 2013, Jang Song-Thaek is reportedly being dragged
away from his chair by two police officials during a meeting in
Pyongyang. North Korea confirmed on December 9 that the powerful uncle
of Kim Jong-Un, the nation's leader, had been removed. New reports from
North Korea say that Jang has been executed.
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Jang Song Thaek: From adviser to 'traitor'
(CNN) -- An uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
has been executed for trying to overthrow the government, the Korean
Central News Agency reported early Friday.
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"Traitor Jang Song Thaek
Executed" blared the headline posted by the state-run news agency about
the man who, until recently, had been regarded as the nation's
second-most powerful figure.
The story said that a
special military tribunal had been held Thursday against the "traitor
for all ages," who was accused of trying to overthrow the state "by all
sorts of intrigues and despicable methods."
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It added, "All the crimes committed by the accused were proved in the course of hearing and were admitted by him."
Once his guilt was established, Jang was immediately executed, it said.
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The KCNA report described Jang as "despicable human scum" and "worse than a dog," and said he had betrayed his party and leader.
"This is a stunning
development," Marcus Noland, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute
for International Economics, told CNN on Thursday. "I've been following
North Korea for 20 years and I do not remember them ever publicly
announcing the execution of a senior leader. You hear rumors about it,
but this theatrical arrest earlier in the week and now this execution
are unprecedented."
He added, "The regime, I think, is trying to intimidate anyone that might have independent ideas or harbor any ambitions."
KCNA's report comes days after Jang was removed from his military post.
Jang, who was married to
Kim's aunt, had served as vice chairman of North Korea's top military
body and had often been pictured beside the 30-year-old leader, who has
ruled North Korea since the death in 2011 of his father, Kim Jong Il.
It has previously been
reported that Kim Il Sung -- the late father of Kim Jong Il and the
architect of the North Korean state -- disapproved of Jang's marriage
into the family, according to Time Magazine.
In Washington, a State
Department official acknowledged having seen the report of Jang's
execution. "While we cannot independently verify this development, we
have no reason to doubt the official KCNA report," Deputy Spokeswoman
Marie Harf said in a statement.
"If confirmed, this is
another example of the extreme brutality of the North Korean regime. We
are following developments in North Korea closely and consulting with
our allies and partners in the region," Harf added.
"I think the message to
people in North Korea is: Don't mess with Kim Jong Un," said Mike
Chinoy, a senior fellow at the U.S.-China Institute at the University of
Southern California and author of "Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis."
"This is about as brutal
and ruthless a signal that could possibly be conveyed -- that Kim Jong
Un is in charge and that anybody who seeks to create any kind of
alternative power center is going to get destroyed politically and, in
the case of Jang Song Thaek, physically as well."
He called the incident "the most dramatic, highly visible shakeup in the North Korean leadership in decades."
Kim accused Jang and his
allies of double-dealing behind the scenes, "dreaming different dreams"
and selling the country's resources at cheap prices, thereby
threatening North Korea's economic development, according to a KCNA
statement this week.
"Jang desperately worked
to form a faction within the party by creating illusion about him and
winning those weak in faith and flatterers to his side," the statement
said.
The statement accused
Jang of womanizing, drug use, gambling, eating at expensive restaurants
and undergoing medical treatment in a foreign country.
Friday's KCNA report
accused Jang of having distributed pornographic pictures among his
confidants and having taken at least 4.6 million euros (US $6.3 million)
"from his secret coffers and squandered it in 2009 alone."
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Two allies of Jang --
Lee Yong-ha and Jang Soo-kee -- were recently executed, South Korean
lawmakers told reporters prior to Friday's report.
The lawmakers, including
Cho Won-jin of the governing Saenuri Party, said they had received a
briefing from South Korea's National Intelligence Service. CNN has not
been able to independently confirm the report.
North Korea, a state
shrouded in secrecy, has been involved in a protracted standoff with its
neighbors and Western powers over its nuclear weapons program.
Tensions between North
Korea and South Korea soared this year as Pyongyang reacted angrily to
tightened United Nations sanctions imposed in response to its latest
nuclear test.
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The two sides are still
technically at war after the Korean conflict, which began in 1950 and
ended in 1953 in a truce, not a treaty.
The South Korean
government held a national security meeting on Friday morning and was
keeping a close eye on events in the north, Unification Ministry
spokesman Kim Eui-do told reporters.
On a separate note,
Seoul has accepted a proposal from Pyongyang to meet on December 19 in
the Kaesong North-South Korea Industrial Complex, the spokesman said.
The execution may have
repercussions among the security and military forces as well as in the
economy, since Jang was well-connected in those areas, USC's Chinoy
said.
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"All those people now
are either going to have to make very visible that they're abandoning
that previous connection and that they're going to show total loyalty to
Kim Jong Un, or they're going to be in trouble."
But it's not clear what, if anything, the incident may portend, he added. "It raises a lot more questions than answers."
For example, the killing
could affect Pyongyang's relationship with Beijing, since Jang had
dealt extensively with China -- North Korea's biggest and most important
neighbor and supplier of food and aid, said Chinoy, who was a CNN
correspondent.
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"I think the Chinese saw
him as a sober, adult supervisor" of the untested young leader, he
said. And Pyongyang's denunciation of Jang -- which implied he had had
dubious connections with an outside power -- was likely referring to
China, whose leaders may .now be "deeply unsettled," Chinoy said.
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The incident could have even wider repercussions, Chinoy said.
If there is a sense of
instability inside North Korea, with top-level people getting killed and
others at risk, "there's always the temptation to strike out
externally," Chinoy said. "You can't rule that out."
CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report
