Kim Jong-un has shown he wants to take North Korea backwards

[umbertino]

The execution by Kim Jong-un of his uncle Jang Song-thaek was swift, brutal - and a slap in the face for China, writes the former UK ambassador to North Korea

 

 

By Jon Everard

11:31AM GMT 13 Dec 2013

 

 

 

Never before has North Korea purged someone so publicly as it has just eliminated Kim Jong-un's uncle, Jang Song-thaek.

 

In the past purges were usually conducted in secret. But this time not only has the detailed political indictment against Jang been published (in the form of the report of the Politburo meeting on Sunday at which he was dismissed) but his actual eviction from a party meeting was broadcast on North Korean television.

 

Then, early today, came the brutal climax: the announcement on official state television that he had been executed for treason, branded "despicable human scum".

 

In making this very public display of ruthlessness Kim Jong-un probably had three objectives. Firstly, nobody in North Korea can doubt now that he, and he alone, is in charge. Nor can anybody doubt that he is utterly ruthless in removing absolutely anybody who might, in the colourful language of the indictment, "dream different dreams".

 

If even the immensely powerful Jang Song-thaek, Kim's own uncle, can be brought so low and dispatched so swiftly, then nobody is safe.

 

Secondly, Kim Jong-un has told his country – and the world – that not only Jang the man, but also the vision that he stood for, has been purged.

 

Jang Song-thaek seems to have argued for a less closed North Korea, one that embraced trade and encouraged inward investment. He was in charge of several (perhaps all) of North Korea's planned special economic zones (an experiment copied from the early days of China's transformation) and was regarded as a strong supporter of economic reform.

 

The indictment of which he was immediately found guilty accused Jang both of "selling off precious resources of the country at cheap prices" and of opposing the "development of the industries of Juche iron, Juche fertilizer and Juche vinalon".

 

This is Pyongyang-speak for the development of North Korean indigenous industries (vinalon is a uniquely North Korean – and uniquely uncomfortable – artificial fibre).

 

So Jang probably argued that North Korea should trade its abundant natural resources to secure the basic materials that it needs rather than try (inefficiently) to manufacture them itself. This heresy will have infuriated North Korea's ideologues, and apparently Kim Jong-un too. Jang's purge probably signals a reverse perestroika – that North Korea is abandoning its timid attempts at structural economic reform.

 

Thirdly, this is a slap in the face for China. China is often described as North Korea's only ally but with every nuclear test and every provocative missile launch the relationship has become more strained. After North Korea's third nuclear test in February China recalibrated its policy to North Korea.

 

It stopped giving North Korea cash aid (it now gives only food and oil). It changed the lead department on policy towards its awkward neighbour from the Communist Party, which has been generally kind to North Korea, to the much sterner Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It made public a long list of items whose delivery to North Korea its customs officials were instructed to prevent.

 

And – a particular sting – it banned top-level contacts. This has meant that Kim Jong-un has been unable to visit Beijing, a big snub in Asian diplomacy. To rub salt into the wound President Xi Jinping of China hosted a very successful state visit in June by Kim Jong-un's arch-rival, President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, and said last week that he hoped to visit South Korea himself.

 

President Xi has however neither visited Pyongyang nor shown any interest in doing so. All this will have alarmed and angered the regime, and Jang's indictment and dismissal is probably, amongst other things, Kim's answer to China. The sale of "precious resources" mentioned above was to China, so North Korea has come close to declaring much of its trade with China illegitimate, and China regarded Jang Song-thaek as its main friend at the court of Kim.

 

The stunned Chinese silence at the news of his removal, followed by a terse statement that this was North Korea's internal affair, speaks volumes.

 

Kim has chosen his moment carefully. China is currently embroiled in an increasingly nasty dispute with its neighbours over islands in the East China sea, and Kim knows that it will not want, just now, to retaliate against a country that, for all its infuriating behaviour, remains one of China's few allies.

 

The story certainly does not end here. Kim now has to decide what to do with Jang's wife, Kim Kyung-hi (Kim Jong-il's sister and so Kim Jong-un's aunt)?

 

Can Kim afford to cast even her off – or is she already so sick that she no longer matters? And meanwhile, will Kim feel the need to arrange a distraction from this political turmoil?

 

He may already be prepared for another nuclear test, and there are ominous reports of movements of heavy weapons near North Korea's maritime border with South Korea, where in 2010 North Korea sank a South Korean corvette and shelled a South Korean island. The next few months may well prove turbulent.

 

John Everard was British ambassador to North Korea from 2006 - 2008

 

 

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10515585/Kim-Jong-un-has-shown-he-wants-to-take-North-Korea-backwards.html

 

[Kandi77]

Somebody call Dennis Rodman, he will fix it!!!!

[umbertino]

Somebody call Dennis Rodman, he will fix it!!!!

When he's not busy chasing Madonna or drinking his fav. beverage : Jagermeister.

[dog53]

This absolutely comes as no surprise to me.  

The little sawed off piece a shat would kill his own mother if he thought she was against him. 

If ever a human being needed a 180 grains of lead in his brain pan .

This lowly spec of human dung would fit the bill perfectly. 

[DinarSpot]

It only takes one crazy to push the button. Is he the one?