hankyoreh

Dec. 12. Jang was reportedly executed by machine gun immediately after the trial. (YTN/Yonhap News) 　

By Hankyoreh English

North Korea has executed Jang Song-thaek, North Korea’s second most powerful man and the uncle of leader Kim Jong-un, for treason, condemning him as “a traitor for all ages.”

Jang was executed on Dec. 12 shortly after a special military trial sentenced him guilty of over ten charges, including the anti-party and anti-state acts, counter-revolutionary factional acts, the North’s official media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Dec. 13.

“The accused is a traitor to the nation for all ages who perpetrated anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts in a bid to overthrow the leadership of our party and state and the socialist system,” KCNA said, using vicious wording.

Jang “was sentenced to death,” as the special military tribunal confirmed that his subversion attempt “is a crime punishable by Article 60 of the DPRK Criminal Code,” it said. “Jang, wicked political careerist, trickster and traitor for all ages in the name of the revolution and the people, was immediately executed”, KCNA added.

According to the KCNA, Jang admitted during the trial, that he attempted to stage a coup targeting the “comrade supreme leader.”

Citing “angry shouts” of the service personnel and North Korean citizens calling for “a stern judgment,” the North branded Jang as “despicable human scum, who was worse than a dog,” who “converted his department into a little kingdom” that is “in betrayal of such profound trust and warmest paternal love shown by the party and the leader for him,” according to the report.

The KCNA also hinted at a series of purges by saying that Jang “let his confidants and flatterers ... work in his department and organs under it,” warning that the army “will never pardon all those who disobey the order of the Supreme Commander.”

Seoul’s ruling Saenuri Party (NFP) lawmaker Seo Sang-kee, chair of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, said the North is presumed to have used a machine gun in executing Jang, just as it did when executing his two close confidants last week.

The execution came 4 days after Jang was relieved of all duties and titles and expelled from the Workers’ Party at an expanded meeting of the party’s Political Bureau on Dec. 8 for alleged factional acts as well as corruption and womanizing.

The swiftly carried out, high-profile purge could be an attempt by the regime to consolidate Kim’s leadership and to show power, but it could bring further instability to the regime.

Dec. 17 is second anniversary of former leader Kim Jong-il’s death, and Jang’s execution could be an attempt by Kim Jong-un to rid his regime of prominent figures from the previous era before that day. The next question is whether more figures associated with Jang will be purged in the near future.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]