NORTH KOREA'S ECCENTRIC DICTATOR "KIM JONG UN" EXECUTED HIS UNCLE BECAUSE HE WAS A THREAT

JANG SONG THAEK BEING LED AWAY

The uncle of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was executed yesterday months after his ex-girlfriend was executed on his orders.

Jang Song Thaek, who had been considered the second most powerful official in the country, was killed immediately after a military trial. He was deemed a traitor and a ‘worse than a dog’ counter-revolutionary who was seeking to overthrow the state, the regime’s news agency KCNA said.

JANG SONG WAS KIM JONG UN'S MENTOR BEFORE THINGS FELL APART

Earlier this week he was expelled from the Workers’ Party of Korea and stripped of all his posts, having been accused of corruption, drug use, gambling, womanising and leading a ‘dissolute and depraved life’.

HIS PICTURE WAS EVEN AIRBRUSHED

He was removed from official media and his image airbrushed out of photos with other Korean leaders.

Jang, 67, had been seen as helping Kim Jong Un consolidate power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, two years ago. Jang was called a traitor for trying to seize absolute power, a stunning end for the supreme leader’s former mentor.

The news agency indicated he had seen the change of leadership as an opportunity to challenge his nephew.

Jang had been tried and executed, North Korea claimed, for ‘attempting to overthrow the state by all sorts of intrigues and despicable methods with a wild ambition to grab the supreme power of our party and state’.

Analysts say Kim Jong Un has acted swiftly and ruthlessly to bolster his own power and show strength. But there are fears in South Korea that the removal of Jang and his followers could lead to instability, a political miscalculation or even an attack on the South.

Jang had been seen by outsiders as the leading supporter of Chinese-style economic reforms and an important link between Pyongyang and Beijing.

In Seoul, top presidential security and government ministers began an unscheduled meeting last night to discuss Jang’s execution and its ramifications for cross-border relations

South Korean president Park Geun-hye warned the North is ‘carrying out a reign of terror’ to reinforce Kim Jong Un’s position.

There was no immediate word about the fate of Jang’s wife, Kim Kyong Hui, the younger sister of Kim Jong Il. She was also seen as an important mentor to Kim Jong Un after her brother’s death.

ABC News had earlier reported that Kim Kyong Hui was involved in the purging of her own husband, but this claim could not immediately be verified.

Credits: Daily Mail