Kim Eradicated Uncle's Whole Family: Report

Brothers' children, grandchildren executed: South Korean news
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 27, 2014 7:24 AM CST
Kim Eradicated Uncle's Whole Family: Report
In this July 27, 2013 file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, is followed by his uncle Jang Song Thaek, second from left.   (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

Following the execution of Kim Jong Un's uncle, Jang Song Thaek, reports claimed that hundreds of Jang's relatives had been arrested. Now, a source tells South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, "all relatives of Jang have been put to death, including even children." Among them are Jang's siblings and his brothers' children and grandchildren, insiders say. Also executed: Jang's sister's husband, who was ambassador to Cuba, and Jang's nephew, the ambassador to Malaysia. "The executions of Jang's relatives mean that no traces of him should be left," a Yonhap source says.

"The purge of the Jang Song Thaek people is under way on an extensive scale from relatives and low-level officials," the source adds. Says another insider: "Some relatives were shot to death by pistol in front of other people if they resisted while being dragged out of their apartment homes." The Yonhap report hasn't been confirmed, the Telegraph notes, but there are some indications it could be accurate. The ambassadors were recalled from their posts abroad after Jang's execution, and North Korea has long been known to punish relatives of political foes. (More Jang Song Thaek stories.)

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