Despicable human scum is not an altogether unusual turn of phrase in the context of colorful official pronouncements from Pyongyang. What makes it remarkable is that it was part of a lurid description of North Korea’s second most powerful man.
And not just that: Jang Song Thaek also happened to be the supreme leader’s uncle. His fall from grace would have been intriguing even if it had not swiftly been followed by brutal retribution. As the official news agency KCNA put it, once a military tribunal gave its verdict, “the decision was immediately executed.” Unofficial reports suggest a machine-gun was used to carry out the sentence. It is not unknown for members of North Korea’s ruling family to be sidelined. The nation’s founding father, Kim Il Sung, banished one of his brothers to the countryside in the mid-1970s, and Jang himself appears to have been purged at least once and possibly twice in the past — he not only survived but also was able to return to the hierarchy.
A year or so before he died in December 2011, the present ruler’s father, Kim Jong Il, picked his sister, Kim Kyong Hui, and her husband — Jang — to groom his designated heir, Kim Jong Un, for the leadership. The latter’s turn at the top appears to have come rather sooner than anyone expected, which evidently made Jang the power behind the throne.
We are now told he was a monster of depravity who distributed pornography among his confidants, was addicted to sexual promiscuity and a “decadent capitalist lifestyle” — in 2009 alone he is accused of having squandered at least 4.6 million euros, including on “enjoying himself in a casino in a foreign country.”
One of the primary problems with reflecting on developments in North Korea is that external knowledge about the secretive Kim-dom is strictly limited and based largely on hearsay. As a result, opinions about what exactly is going on and the possible consequences tend to be highly speculative. In the present instance, for example, analysts initially presumed that Jang’s fate would also reflect on his wife (now his widow), but it was indicated at the weekend that Kim Kyong Hui had been named as a member of the ruling Workers’ Party’s funeral committee. It is unclear whether the irony was intentional, but this is supposedly a prestigious position. Unofficially, there are even suggestions that she helped to nail her treacherous husband.
Notwithstanding the paucity of objective information from Pyongyang, one thing is clear: The official reaction to Jang’s ouster and execution is unprecedented. A quiet purge, without much in the way of official comment, would have been less surprising. Yet entire front pages of North Korean newspapers have subsequently been devoted to grotesque accusations and sordid details. Although analysts are unclear as to whether the impetus came from Kim Jong Un himself or from hard-liners in the military hierarchy. Is it a case of the latest Kim establishing his supremacy, or has the nation’s most powerful institution stepped in to sound a warning against civilian interference?
Another explanation for recent events could lie in the notion that Jang was keen to instigate Chinese-style economic changes, and that the denouement of his career is chiefly intended as a warning to China to mind its own business. If true, that would be pretty remarkable, given that Beijing is one of Pyongyang’s only allies — and there are limits to its indulgence.
One of the main problems with the hermit kingdom is that, unfortunately but inevitably, its opacity and proclivity toward bizarre pronouncements make it easier to mock than to analyze. Power struggles within North Korea are hardly a novelty, but their precise nature is particularly hard to gauge. Washington and Seoul are not entirely mistaken in suspecting that a distraction from domestic woes could take the shape of a potentially inflammatory militaristic gesture directed against South Korea or Japan.
In its present state, North Korea cannot indefinitely endure — although predictions of its demise have proved premature in the past. How soon the House of Kim might crumble remains an open question. It may well remain superficially intact for decades to come, but there is also a distinct possibility that the end could come as suddenly as it did for Jang.
