NORTH Korea last night announced that they had executed Kim Jong Il’s uncle —
branding him “despicable human scum”.
Jang Song Thaek, 67, had been booted from the government over allegations of
corruption and leading a “dissolute and depraved life”.
A special military tribunal found him guilty of treason and “attempting
to overthrow the state”.
He was seen as the Stalinist state’s second most powerful official. His death
is the latest in a series of purges by tyrant Kim.
North Korean state media said Jang was tried for “such hideous crime as
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”.
The histrionic 2,700-word statement added: “From long ago, Jang had a
dirty political ambition. He dared not raise his head when Kim Il Sung and
Kim Jong Il were alive.
“He began revealing his true colours, thinking that it was just the time
for him to realise his wild ambition in the period of historic turn when the
generation of the revolution was replaced.”
Some reports describe how he was killed with a heavy machine gun.
The White House said the execution is another example of the “extreme
brutality” of the country’s regime.
Two of Jang’s close aides were publicly executed last month. The pair had been
accused of corruption.