North Korea 北朝鮮

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Friday Jang Song Thaek, the uncle of leader Kim Jong Un and previously considered the second most powerful man in the secretive state, has been executed after a special military tribunal found him guilty of treason.

"The accused Jang brought together undesirable forces and formed a faction as the boss of a modern day factional group for a long time and thus committed such hideous crime as attempting to overthrow the state," the North's official KCNA news agency said.

The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Friday carried a photograph of Jang in handcuffs and being held by uniformed guards as he stood trial.

Earlier this week North Korea stripped Jang of all posts and expelled him from the ruling Workers' Party, accusing him of criminal acts including mismanagement of the state financial system, womanising and alcohol abuse.

"From long ago, Jang had a dirty political ambition. He dared not raise his head when Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il were alive," KCNA said, referring to leader Kim's grandfather and father, who were previous rulers of the dynastic state.

"He began revealing his true colours, thinking that it was just the time for him to realise his wild ambition in the period of historic turn when the generation of the revolution was replaced."

The execution caps a spectacular downfall of the husband of leader Kim's aunt. Jang had previously suffered purges but fought his way back to the power circle to hold influential positions in the ruling party and the military.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; editing by Andrew Roche and Jim loney)







韓国国会議員「張成沢、機関銃で射殺と推定」

中央日報日本語版 12月13日(金)10時44分配信



１３日の韓国メディアによると、国会情報委員長のセヌリ党の徐相箕（ソ・サンギ）議員は、

北朝鮮の張成沢（チャン・ソンテク）国防委員会副委員長が電撃処刑されたことに関し、

「最近北朝鮮で見られる機関銃射殺と推定される」と述べた。

徐議員は１３日、党の院内対策会議と国会記者会見を通じて、

「今日未明、国家情報院から関連報告を受けた」とし「最近、張成沢の核心側近２人が機関銃で処刑されたのを国家情報院が確認したが、

今回の処刑方式も同じと推定される」と説明した。

張成沢に対する電撃処刑の背景については、

「金正日（キム・ジョンイル）に比べて権力が相対的に脆弱であることを傍証したもので、

張成沢をめぐる内部論争の拡散を早期に遮断するため」と評価した。