This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/world/asia/north-korea-says-uncle-of-executed.html

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
North Korea Says Kim’s Uncle Executed North Korea Says Kim’s Uncle Executed
(about 1 hour later)
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea announced early Friday it had executed the uncle and one-time mentor of its top leader Kim Jong-un, calling him a traitor. SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Friday that Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of its leader Kim Jong-un and considered his mentor, was executed for trying to mobilize the military to stage a coup.
The announcement, reported by the official Korean Central News Agency, said the uncle, Jang Song-thaek, was put to death on Thursday after a special military trial. Mr. Jang, 67, was executed on Thursday, immediately after he was convicted in a special military court on charges of violating the North’s criminal code, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
The execution came less than a week after Mr. Jang, who was more than twice Mr. Kim’s age, was dismissed from the ruling party and arrested in a surprise purge that unnerved neighbors of North Korea, one of the world’s most hermetic and secretive countries. “He lost his mind due to his greed for power,” the news agency reported. “He persistently plotted to spread his evil design into the military, believing that he could overthrow the leadership if he could mobilize the military.”
Even before the execution, the purge had raised worries in the United States and South Korea that Mr. Kim might now lash out at those he considers enemies, possibly staging another nuclear test or instigating a conflict with the South at sea. China, the North’s patron, was also unnerved by mounting evidence of an internal power struggle that could destabilize its already troublesome ally.
Mr. Jang, believed to be the second most powerful man in the country, was the most prominent North Korean purged and executed under Mr. Kim, whom South Korean officials said was resorting to “a reign of terror” in an attempt to consolidate his power in the isolated, nuclear-armed North. Mr. Jang is the husband of Kim Kyong-hee, a sister of Kim Jong-il, the late North Korean leader and Mr. Kim’s father.
Mr. Jang had been a fixture in the North Korean elite for the past 40 years, serving in major party posts under Kim Jong-il.
On Sunday, North Korea stripped Mr. Jang of all his powerful posts and expelled him from the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a meeting of the Political Bureau of the party’s Central Committee. Then, in an extraordinary departure from its traditional secrecy over its internal politics, the country announced on Monday the details of Mr. Jang’s “anti-party,” “anti-revolutionary” crimes, accusing him of building a “faction” to undermine Mr. Kim’s leadership.
Such a condemnation appeared to have sealed Mr. Jang’s fate, with some analysts saying at the time that they believed that Mr. Jang would be killed. North Korean media has since begun a hate-campaign against Mr. Jang and his “followers,” quoting steel workers as saying that they wanted to “throw them into a furnace.” Still, some analysts had doubted Mr. Kim would go as far as executing a man who was related to his family by marriage.