Is Kim Jong Un Purging Leaders because He Is Firmly in Power or because He's Afraid of Being Purged Himself

Jang Song Thaek rose slowly in the North Korean political hierarchy, a tightly controlled family-led ruling rlite based on bloodlines enanating from Kim Il Sumg, the founder of the modern-era North Korea. Jang was Vice Chairman of the National Defense Commission and a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party. He rose from a municipal bureaucrat to become North Korea's No. 2 official - behind only leader Kim Jong Un. But his ties had to be more than political : he was married to the leader's aunt, Kim Kyong Hui, a daughter of Kim Il Sung. Jang's trial and execution, reportedly by machine gun, on Friday, marked an unprecedented fall from grace of one of the most powerful figures in the country, as well as its most serious political upheaval in decades. Jang was the mentor charged by Kim Jong Il to lead his son, Kim Jong Un, to power, a task Jang carried out after the death of Kim Jong Il in December 2011. In late 2008, Jang was assumed to be serving in a regency role while the young Kim Jong Un was being groomed. Jang often accompanied Kim Jong Un on guidance trips and stood at his elbow at public events. He had a well-developed network both inside North Korea and with China, partnering North Korea with its neighbor and ally. Rumors of Jang's dismissal began earlier this month. Four days after his dramatic public arrest, Jang was tried for treason by a special military tribunal and executed, state media reported. He was accused and reportedly confessed to many serious crimes, the worst being plotting against the leadership, according to Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency. According to AP, for the outside world, the official 2,700-word treatise ripping Jang's reputation to shreds provided an intriguing and revealing glimpse into the murky, feudalistic world of politics in the secretive country. For North Koreans, the shocking public pillorying of a man seen as a father figure to Kim Jong Un was designed to send a clear message about the intolerance of opposition in a totalitarian state that demands absolute loyalty to the leader. Jang was born in the northern border city of Chongjin and had humble roots but was clever enough to gain entry to prestigious Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang. He started as instructor for the Pyongyang City Committee of the Workers' Party, and he rose post by post until reaching the top ranks. He was purged and sent to a labor camp for two years in the mid-2000s, according to Kim Young-soo, a North Korea expert at Sogang University in Seoul. That purge was widely seen as a move to clip his wings. It was in 2008, as Kim Jong Un was being groomed to succeed his father that Jang began his meteoric rise to the inner circle, an ascension that gained speed after Kim Jong Il's death from a heart attack in December 2011. Jang was not a military officer but he was made a four-star general. He also became Administration Officer in the party's Central Committee, a position that gave him power over security agencies as well as the judiciary. He then helped engineer a campaign to bring the once-powerful military into the party's fold. Jang was instrumental in shaping North Korea's new economic policy, forming international joint ventures, particularly with China. Under Kim Jong Un, the government has made improving the economy one of two main party objectives, along with building nuclear weapons. Jang was also named head of the country's sports programs, one of Kim Jong Un's pet projects. Until his dismissal Sunday, he last was seen publicly in early November meeting a sports delegation from Japan. Jang's arrest was preceded by the reported executions last month of his two closest confidants. Official media confirmed one ally's purge Wednesday, calling Ri Ryong Ha a "flatterer" and stooge who with Jang was building an anti-Kim faction within the party. Kim Kyong Hui, Jang's wife of 30 years and the aunt of Kim Jong Un, being his father's sister, reportedly aided in the arrest and trial of her husband, according to South Korean experts. Kim Kyong Hui has never played a key role in a leadership structure that stakes its claim to legitimacy on blood relations to her father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung. Frail and said to be in bad health, Kim Kyong Hui has not been seen in video and photographs of this week's proceedings. South Korean media reported that the couple's only child, a daughter, committed suicide in 2006 at age 29 while studying in Paris. The official North Korea news agency has said that the purges will continue. That woyld call into question the futures of Jang's family. His brother-in-law who is the ambassador to Cuba, and his nephew, the ambassador to Malaysia, were recalled to Pyongyang, according to South Korean officials. Hang's nephew, the minister of tourism, canceled a trip to attend a tourism conference in Taiwan this week, Taiwanese officials told the island's state news agency, CNA. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the news from North Korea is being interpreted in one of two ways : either Kim is very solid in his leadership position and feels no restraint in eliminating any remotely possible rival - or his position is weak, with turmoil in the upper ranks of his circle, and he feels the need to act boldly to prevent a coup. Whivhever it is, and we can only guess, the future will be even more uncertain as the world tries to deal with North Korea and its young and unpredictable leader. Eul Chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea's Kyungnam University says that Jang had been seen as the leading supporter of Chinese-style economic reforms and an important link between Pyongyang and Beijing. China has called Jang's execution a domestic issue, refusing to make further public comment. North Korea has recently turned to attempts at diplomacy with South Korea and the United States. But tensions have remained high since Pyongyang's threats in March and April, which included warnings that it would restart nuclear bomb fuel production. The world will have to wait for signals from the extremely secretive country, hoping that somehow it will become more predictable as the purges end and a stable leadership emerges, whether or not that includes Kim Jong Un.