This is like watching the unfolding of some sort of freakish dynastic throwdown in a bloody Greek tragedy, except with nukes. Even North Koreans aren’t in the habit of executing members of their own ruling family, and whether this is part of a personal vendetta or a power struggle — or both — isn’t quite clear.
Jang Song Taek, the uncle by marriage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was executed for attempting to seize power for himself, the official news service reported early Friday.
In a rambling report, the Korea Central News Agency denounced the “despicable human scum Jang, who was worse than a dog,” and said he had attempted to “overthrow the state by all sorts of intrigues and despicable methods with a wild ambition to grab the supreme power.”
The execution, after a trial this week by a military tribunal, is the most public purge of a top echelon official in North Korea in decades and raises concern about the increasingly erratic leadership of 30-year-old Kim Jong Un, believed to be the world’s youngest head of state. …
He was widely considered the second-most important person in the country and had installed numerous relatives and cronies in key positions in the government and military.
