London: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un executed his uncle by having him stripped naked and eaten alive by starving dogs while he watched, a report claimed on Thursday.
Jang Song-thaek was said to have been thrown into a cage with his five closest aides, after which 120 hounds, which had been starved for three days, were released, eating the men until there was nothing left.
The horrifying details emerged in a report in Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper, which said the gruesome act was known as ‘quan jue’, or execution by dogs.
In previous executions, political prisoners were killed by firing squads with machine guns, although one aide was tied to a post and a mortar round was fired at him.
The report said the ‘quan jue’ lasted an hour, and Kim was said to have watched the stomach-churning “show” along with 300 senior officials.
Analysts said the tyrant had probably invited the officials to the death ceremony as a warning that they should not step out of line and remain faithful not only to him but also to the Stalinist regime. Kim had described his 67-year-old uncle — who was married to his father’s sister — as a traitor, a womaniser and a “despicable human scum — worse than a dog”. It was previously thought he had been executed by firing squad.
The Singapore paper was quoting China’s official newspaper, Wen Wei Po, which was published in Hong Kong on December 12, although details emerged only on Thursday.
The savage death of Kim’s uncle sent shockwaves through the authoritarian state, showing no one was safe — even family members. Kim’s 19-year-old nephew fled his university campus in Paris after the execution and has gone into hiding.
The tyrant’s ruthless streak was documented last year when it was claimed he had a former lover executed because she appeared in a porn film.
South Korean newspapers said singer Hyon Song-wol and 11 others were arrested in August for violating North Korea’s laws against pornography and were executed, possibly by firing squad, three days later.
The condemned, all members of the performing groups Unhasu Orchestra and Wangjaesan Light Music Band, were accused of making videos of themselves having sex and selling the videos for distribution in China. Other band members as well as the families of the victims were made to watch the mass execution.
The Straits Times said the report of the quan jue vividly depicted the brutality of the young North Korean leader and the fact that it appeared in a Beijing-controlled newspaper showed that China no longer cared about its relations with the Kim regime.
Two days after the report, The Global Times, which is associated with the People’s Daily, a Chinese Communist Party outlet, published an editorial saying that the abrupt political change in North Korea epitomised the backwardness of the country’s political system. And it warned its own government not to cosy up to North Korea any longer, claiming that the majority of the Chinese people were “disgusted” with the Kim regime.
Writing in the Straits Times, analyst Ching Cheong said the story, along with the stern editorial, provided a measure of the extent of Beijing’s loathing.
“In purging a top official known for his close ties with Beijing in such a brutal manner, Pyongyang (the North Korean capital) did not hide its antagonism towards China,” he wrote.
