Rivalries Within North Korean Elite Led to Purge, South’s Spy Chief Says

[iandhr]

Source: NY TIMES

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s intelligence chief said Monday that Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, who was executed this month, apparently had not plotted a coup as Pyongyang had said, but had fallen victim to intrigue within the country’s elite over lucrative business deals, according to lawmakers in Seoul.

Mr. Jang, 67, who was once believed to be the second most powerful man in North Korea, was executed on Dec. 12 on charges of plotting to overthrow his nephew’s government, four days after he was hauled out of a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party at which he was stripped of all titles. The highly unusual public purge and execution of a member of the North’s ruling family has set off widespread speculation about the possibility of a power struggle within the secretive regime.

During a closed-door meeting Monday of the South Korean National Assembly’s intelligence committee, Nam Jae-joon, director of the National Intelligence Service, disputed Pyongyang’s assertion that Mr. Jang had tried to usurp his nephew’s power. Rather, he said, Mr. Jang and his associates had provoked the enmity of rivals within the North’s elite by dominating lucrative business deals, such as the sale of North Korean coal to China.

“There had been friction building up among the agencies of power in North Korea over privileges and over the abuse of power by Jang Song-thaek and his associates,” Mr. Nam was quoted as saying.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/24/world/asia/north-korea-purge.html?hp&_r=0

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/24/world/asia/north-korea-purge.html?hp&_r=0

[maxsolomon]

1. the machinations make more sense if you think of them as a medieval monarchy

that is tolerated and subsidized by a much more powerful state - China, to be an economic hindrance to Japan and S. Korea.

for 60 years.

[On the Road]

2. There are Similarities to the Chinese Cultural Revolution as Well

The strict order, high level of regimentation, constant pagents and parades, extreme thriftiness and self-denial -- all would be right at home in most of the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

Of course, the tradition of having emperors with complete authority had a lot to do with the way Marxism was implemented in China. And that type of system breeds power struggles and purges if its own:

Lin Biao
The Evolution of Leadership Purges in Communist China