A Gamble for North Korea’s Young Leader (in purge of his uncle)

By artappraiser on Mon, 12/09/2013 - 4:14pm |

By Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times, Dec. 9, 2013

[.....] Mr. Jang’s purge was highly unusual for North Korea not only because its victim was a man long considered a core member of Mr. Kim’s inner circle but also because of the way the regime abandoned its customary secrecy about internal politics and publicized the purge — through front-page coverage in the North’s state-run newspapers and through the televised spectacle of party secretaries, some tearfully, attacking a man who was until recently the North’s second most powerful figure.

In an unusual and extended Sunday meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee presided over by his nephew, Mr. Jang was condemned for womanizing, drug abuse, “wining and dining at back parlors of deluxe restaurants,” gambling in foreign casinos at the party’s expense, and above all, nurturing his “politically motivated ambition” by building up a “faction” to challenge against Mr. Kim as the “unitary center” of the ruling party, state media reported. [.....]

URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/world/asia/a-gamble-for-north-korea-leader-kim-jong-un.html?hp&_r=0

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As the recent spate of JFK retrospectives has obliquely referenced, if womanizing and drug abuse were disqualifications to political office in this country...

by jollyroger on Mon, 12/09/2013 - 4:20pm

womanizing and drug abuse

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

by jollyroger on Mon, 12/09/2013 - 4:21pm

And doesn't this one apply for nearly everyone in U.S. Congress past and present, not to mention many in the National People's Congress of China?

wining and dining at back parlors of deluxe restaurants

by artappraiser on Mon, 12/09/2013 - 4:35pm

Well, maybe, but in North Korea there are millions of hungry children whereas in the United Stat... .never mind.

by jollyroger on Mon, 12/09/2013 - 5:09pm

Not just a dog and pony show; he just got the real axe, not to mention the full propaganda menu of classic verbal abuse on his bones:

North Korea executes Kim Jong-un's uncle as 'traitor'

The Guardian

[....] Jang Song-thaek, previously one of the country's most powerful men, was accused of everything from plotting to overthrow the state to instigating disastrous currency reforms and dishing out pornography in the report from official news agency KCNA.

It denounced him as "worse than a dog" and "despicable human scum" [....]

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/13/2013 - 11:45am

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