North Korea said on Friday the uncle of leader Kim Jong Un, previously considered the second most powerful man in the secretive state, has been executed for treason, the biggest upheaval since the death of Kim’s father two years ago.
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.
News of the execution followed a swirl of unconfirmed media reports that 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.
