Update | Kim Jong-un's uncle, Jang Song-thaek, executed for treason in North Korea
A special military tribunal found the second most powerful man in the secretive state guilty of treason, North Korean state media said
The North’s official KCNA news agency said Jang Song-thaek had been executed after a special military tribunal found him guilty of treason, only days after he was stripped of all posts and expelled from the ruling Workers’ Party.
Conservative lawmaker Lee In-je of the ruling Saenuri Party told South Korean media on Thursday that he believed two North Korean vice premiers, Ri Mu-yong and Ro Tu-Chol, have sought refuge in China.
Other unconfirmed media reports claim one or more of Jang’s aides had defected to South Korea. The South’s spy agency says it has no knowledge of any such defections.
South Korea expressed deep concerns about a series of occurrences in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), including the execution of Jang Song-Thaek, uncle-in- law of DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said on Friday.
“The government is closely monitoring the series of incidents, which are happening in North Korea (DPRK), with deep concerns,” Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Eui-do said in a televised statement.
North Korean politics are virtually impenetrable from outside and the reason could also easily be a falling out between Kim and his uncle, or even with Jang’s wife.