By Dr John Swenson-Wright Chatham House
North Korean media have described Mr Chang, left, as
"despicable scum" and "a traitor for all ages"
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The official North Korean
announcement of the execution on 12 December of Chang Song-thaek, the North's
second most prominent official and uncle of the country's leader, Kim Jong-un,
is a brutal but potentially politically risky move by Mr Kim to assert his
political primacy and a shift towards an increasingly centralised and
personalised system of rule.
Mr Chang's swift and bloody elimination (unconfirmed reports talk of him
having been executed by machine-gun), some four days after he was shown on state
television being dragged out of a meeting of the politburo, is relatively rare
in a country where the leadership, notwithstanding its past authoritarian
crackdowns, has tended to remove political opponents with limited fanfare.
Today's announcement appears to be a throwback to the 1950s, when such
uncompromising personal purges were more commonplace.
Equally unusual has been the lengthy catalogue of crimes that Mr Chang was
convicted of, including economic corruption, financial mismanagement, pursuing a
"decadent, capitalist lifestyle", overseas gambling, disobeying the country's
military, and most seriously of all, planning a coup and seeking to seize "the
supreme power of [the]… party and state".
In uncompromisingly, vituperative language, the North's media describes Chang
as "despicable scum", "a traitor for all ages" and of mobilising "anti-party,
counter-revolutionary factional elements" intent on overthrowing the country's
leadership.
The reference to a group of regime opponents including "reactionaries" and
"undesirable and alien elements", and not merely a single disloyal individual,
exposes ambiguities about Kim Jong-un's actual authority.
It may hint at a wider circle of individuals hostile to the regime, and the
next few days and weeks will be an important indication of how widespread such
opposition could be, especially if the purge is widened to include other
individuals formerly close to Mr Chang.
Removing a single individual may not be enough to quell dissent if it is
widespread; alternatively a swift and brutal execution may be a sufficiently
powerful deterrent to any other would-be rivals.
Diluting family credentials
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Chang Song-thaek
- Born 1946; marries Kim Jong-il's sister in 1972
- Joins Korean Workers' Party administrative ranks in 1970s
- Elected to Central Committee in 1992
- Sidelined in 2004, but rehabilitated in 2006
- 2011: Gets top military post under Kim Jong-un
- Nov 2013: Reportedly dismissed
- Dec 2013: Reportedly executed
By emphasising and publicising to the North Korean
public Mr Chang's longstanding disloyalty not only to Kim Jong-un, but also to
the country's two previous leaders Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung, the leadership
has taken a risk.
Exposing disunity so dramatically challenges the state's narrative of
political cohesion and strength at home and may, inadvertently, raise doubts in
the minds of ordinary North Koreans about the stability of the new leadership,
in power for barely two years.
Executing a close member of the Kim dynasty, albeit one linked by marriage
rather than by blood ties (Mr Chang's wife is Kim Kyong-hui, the sister of Kim
Jong-il), is also an unusual step, since it potentially dilutes the familial
credentials that underpin the legitimacy of the North's family state
structure.
Kim Kyong-hui has herself not been seen in public for some time, perhaps on
account of her poor health, and there has been speculation that she may have had
a hand in the removal of her husband, prompted by unconfirmed reports of his
womanising and a long period of separation.
Economic policy disagreements may also have had a role to play in Mr Chang's
removal. Mr Chang has been seen as a reformer in some circles and a leading
official with close ties to the Chinese government.
The North Korean media denunciation of Mr Chang includes a criticism of his
management of a number of critical economic zones in the north of the country,
and the regime may be seeking to insulate itself from any failures by
scapegoating Mr Chang for the government's more systemic economic shortcomings.
by bbc