North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful uncle
was stripped naked, thrown into a cage, and eaten
alive by a pack of ravenous dogs, according to a
newspaper with close ties to China’s ruling
Communist Party.
Jang Song Thaek, who had been considered Kim’s
second-in-command, was executed last month
after being found guilty of “attempting to
overthrow the state,” North Korea’s state-run
news agency reported.
The official North Korean account on Dec. 12 did
not specify how Jang was put to death.
Hong Kong-based pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei
Po reported that Jang and his five closest aides
were set upon by 120 hunting hounds which had
been starved for five days.
Kim and his brother Kim Jong Chol supervised the
one-hour ordeal along with 300 other officials,
according to Wen Wei Po. The newspaper added
that Jang and other aides were “completely eaten
up.”
The newspaper has acted as a mouthpiece for
China’s Communist Party. The report may be a
sign of the struggle between those in the party
who want to remain engaged with North Korea
and those who would like to distance themselves
from Kim’s regime.
Jang was seen by many experts as a regent
behind North Korea’s Kim dynasty and a key
connection between the hermit nation and its ally
China.
In the highly scripted execution, North Korea
accused him of “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.”
Kim’s government also accused him of of
corruption, womanizing, gambling and taking
drugs, and referred to him as “despicable human
scum.”
Jang was married to Kim’s aunt, Kim Kyong Hui,
the younger sister of Kim Jong Il.
NBC