North Korean satchem Kim Jong-un's no slouch with the airbrush it seems. His uncle appears in the upper version of the photos above. In the lower version...poof!
The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has overseen the ousting of his previously powerful uncle Jang Song-thaek for crimes including faction-building and “dissolute and depraved” behaviour involving drug use, womanising and gambling, North Korean media has announced.
The unprecedented and lengthy dispatch from the state news agency KCNA followed claims of the purge last week by South Korean legislators briefed by Seoul’s spy agency.Less than two years since becoming leader, Kim has made sweeping changes to the power apparatus in North Korea. Another key figure who had been seen as a mentor – Ri Yong Ho, then military chief – was removed due to “ill health” last year.
But the toppling of Jang is remarkable because he is being attacked so publicly and aggressively, and because of his family ties. The North Korean state broadcaster showed a photograph of him being forcibly removed from the meeting that announced his fate by two uniformed men.“It is the most prominent disgrace of an official in North Korea’s entire history,” said Andrei Lankov, an expert on the North at Kookmin University, who noted that the whole front page of the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper was devoted to Jang.
“Purges in the past have seldom touched members of the family; the only precedent I remember was in the mid-70s when the brother of Kim Il-sung was removed. As far as I understand there was no official accusation brought against him; he was simply sent to the countryside.
“Secondly, when they have purged people in the past it was mentioned in passing.“It tells us something about the new leadership’s style: the young man seems really tough and brutal in dealing with people he wants to destroy.”
Jang had been purged twice before but rose again towards the end of Kim Jong-il’s life as the leader sought to ensure a smooth succession for his son, picking his brother-in-law to help ease the transition.
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Either Uncle Jang reeeaally pissed off his nephew, or his dissipations were on such a scale as to embarass even a family like the Jungs:
Kim Jong Ryul, 75, has spent the last 16 years in exile in Austria after fleeing North Korea and still fears for his life. In a new book, At the Dictator's Service, he recounts the luxury in which North Korea's leaders live.
Using the code name Emil, Kim travelled through Europe on a diplomatic passport and with a suitcase full of cash, procuring cars, planes, guns and special food for both Kim Il-sung and his son, Kim Jong-il.
The goods and money would be channelled through Vienna, to take advantage of banking secrecy, lax trade rules and minimal checks on aircraft.Mr Kim said the North Korean leaders had dozens of villas, some of which were built underground, that were stuffed with chandeliers, silk wallpaper and expensive furniture. He said some of the villas were equipped with special ventilation systems in case of a nuclear attack.
He said Kim Il-sung would "only eat foreign food". He added: "In Vienna, there was a special attache, a friend of mine, who only procured special foreign food for the dictator." Troupes of chefs would be sent from North Korea to Austria to study how to cook."
'Learn everything!' that's what they were told," revealed Mr Kim "The crazy dictators heard rumours that Austrian cuisine was world famous and that's why they wanted (the cooks) to come here."
He also said that despite public denunciations of Western imperialism and decadent culture, the ruling family has an extensive car collection including models from Mercedes, Fords, Cadillacs and Lincolns. A special Romanian secret service contact helped procure hunting rifles and even a light Cessna aeroplane. Other devices that made their way to Pyongyang included heartbeat monitors that could detect people hiding behind walls and gold-plated pistols...
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According to a report submitted to the South Korean parliament today, imports of luxury goods amounted to $645.8 million in 2012, a sharp increase from the average of around $300 million a year under his father, Kim Jong-il.
Most of his people may be lacking food, medicine and access to most basic services, but the reclusive regime's luxury purchases included pets, pet food, bathroom fittings, sauna systems and maternity products, Yonhap News quoted Yoon Sang-hyun, of the ruling Saenuri Party, as telling the parliament in Seoul.
The data also pointed to a sudden increase in imports of musical instruments, cosmetics, handbags, leather products, watches and cars made in Japan and China.Imports of bottles of high-end alcohol cost $30 million (£20 million), with electronic goods costing the state $37 million and luxury watches a further $8.2 million."
The products were given as gifts to key figures in North Korean society to ensure their loyalty to the regime," Mr Yoon told the parliament...Kim is likely to be spending more than his father on senior members of the party and the military as he attempts to build his own power base from which to run the country.
There have been reports of dissent within sections of elite concerned at the youth and inexperience of their new leader and cars, pets and perfume are apparently bribes designed to quash any rumblings of discontent.
Kim does not seem to be scrimping on his own creature comforts either, with the regime drafting in the military to build him a "world class" ski resort at the Masik Pass Skiing Ground and the young leader undertaking an "on-the-spot guidance" tour aboard a luxury $7 million yacht earlier this year.
UPDATE 12/12/13: They've executed Uncle Jang.
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