The South Koreans seem to think this will lead to more sabre rattling from the North and subsequent instability. They’ve even gone as far as to declare a state of high alert in the wake of this news. An analyst said this guy was the closest, most reliable ‘friend’ the Chinese had from the Kim cult and, despite their dismissal of the situation as an ‘internal political matter’, they’re surely very concerned about these events.
What’s this going to mean for the region if even the Chinese are cut off? Can we expect another round of “satellite” launches? Perhaps some more nuclear posturing? How will we keep the reigns on Kim if their one tenuous intermediary are now more or less cut out of the loop? How, if at all, does this play into the whole East China Sea saga?
The Chinese aren’t cut off. They’ve merely lost the liaison they thought most amenable to their agenda. North Korean can’t function without Chinese support and this isn’t even remotely near cutting ties with them.
Yeah, there’s probably going to be an uptick in saber rattling and maybe some deliberate provocation, but it’s not like North Korea was the most stable region in the world in the first place.
I think it’s safe to assume that the dreams in question were the MLK kind, not the unconscious hallucination one :). That being said, it’s still North Korea and they’re well into surreal by now, so who knows.
This was fairly predictable. He’s a young leader trying to assert his authority, and he has no use for remnants of the old regime. Remember, “older and wiser” people are people who have the respect of others, which means that their power doesn’t derive solely from the Leader. Such people are a threat and must be eliminated.
North Korea is so fascinating - I heard a description the other day that the leadership there is a snake pit and Kim Jong Un is the hamster.
The question here is - was this execution a show of force or a show of weakness? We’ll know soon enough but if I played the Death Pool in the Game Room I’d certainly have Kim Jong Un on my list - provided he makes it to 2014.
Worse than a dog! Thrice-cursed treachery! I can only assume it was the mustachio-twirling that gave this “traitor to the nation for all ages” away. I get the feeling that if we could bring Uncle Joe back for a day and let him see the modern DPRK, he’d be like “Kim, comrade. Dial it back a bit, man. You’re giving my bad reputation a bad reputation!”
I may be eating these words, but I’m going to interpret it as a show of force. Jang’s wife (Kim’s aunt) was, according to accounts, involved in the purge. Kim has already removed many of his father’s (and his grandfather’s!) confidants, acolytes, and spear-carriers from policy positions in both the party and the army, and I think Jang may have been lagging behind events.
What I find most interesting is that Kim’s older brother was, again–according to reports–actively involved, to the point of carrying arms, in the purging of the Jang faction. So I’m going to guess no fratricide coming up.
You have to wonder how long a leader can survive when there isn’t enough money to light the streets at night. A sane person would be paranoid about an uprising. A crazy person would be acting on that paranoia like there’s no tomorrow.
If you’re running an evil empire and you kill off the people close to you then what’s left are people who are not close to you. The ones who aren’t well fed and living in the dark.
He’s taken a train that is pointed toward a cliff and increased the speed.
Oh, for Pete’s sake, have you no knowledge of history at all? He’s killing off people who were close to his father in order to advance people who are close to him. That’s a strategy as old as recorded history. And that’s not what you questioned.
You questioned the ability of the N.K. regime to survive given that it cannot provide streetlights at night. That has not been shown to be a problem for him, or his father, or his grandfather.
They were just discussing this on radio and the conclusion was this demonstrates instability in the regime and a pressing need for li’l Kim to lay the smack down. The overt way in which this guy was publicly lambasted also points to there being more than Chang that the current dynasty wanted to send a ominous message to.
Moreover, the fact this guy had been the right hand of Jong-Ill, had been in the position for decades and was li’l Kim’s own uncle, demonstrates some serious insecurity on the current lineage’s part.
As far as the West is concerned, we better watch this space for some upcoming errant missile launches, ship sinking and the like.
Your radio needs to grasp some facts. Jang was not the right hand of Kim Jong-Il; in fact he was purged in the mid-2000s, re-emerging as a power player only in 2009.
Also, it’s unclear that his execution demonstrates insecurity. It could as easily demonstrate Kim Jong-un’s sense of confidence in his control.