North Korean Leader Has His Uncle Executed

Jang Sung-taek, uncle and former mentor to North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, was put to death as a traitor on December 12, 2013. The execution was announced by the state media denouncing Jang as “despicable human scum … who was worse than a dog, perpetrated thrice-cursed acts of treachery in betrayal of such profound trust and warmest paternal love shown by the party and the leader for him.” Commentators around the world have taken note of how unusual it is for North Korea to make its internal politics public.

According to some reports, Kim Jong-un’s 67-year-old uncle “confessed” to the crimes he was accused of before being executed. To Americans that probably doesn’t mean anything, particularly when an 85-year-old American citizen was recently forced to make a videotaped confession to crimes the North Korean government alleged he committed during the Korean war over half a century ago. Merrill Newman was threatened with spending the rest of his life in a North Korean jail on espionage charges. He was released and sent back to the USA but when you think about these two incidents, it’s scary. From tourists to relatives, no one is safe.