N Korea leader’s aunt missing from state ceremony
19 Dec 2013 4:16 AM IST
The purging and execution of Jang Song Thaek on Friday was the biggest upheaval in years in North Korea, which has conducted three nuclear tests and this year raised the possibility of nuclear war with South Korea and the United States.
Jang was married to Kim Kyong Hui, a daughter of state founder Kim Il Sung and sister of the country’s second leader, Kim Jong-il. She is an aunt of current leader Kim Jong-Un, the third Kim to rule.
North Korea’s KCNA news agency said last week Jang had been executed for trying to seize power and for driving the economy ‘into an uncontrollable catastrophe’.
On Tuesday, his wife did not appear at a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the death of her brother, North Korea’s second leader, Kim Jong-il.
Together, she and Jang had been considered the ‘Pyongyang power couple’, the real force behind the North Korean leadership, before Jang was labelled a traitor and executed.
Jang was married to Kim Kyong Hui, a daughter of state founder Kim Il Sung and sister of the country’s second leader, Kim Jong-il. She is an aunt of current leader Kim Jong-Un, the third Kim to rule.
North Korea’s KCNA news agency said last week Jang had been executed for trying to seize power and for driving the economy ‘into an uncontrollable catastrophe’.
On Tuesday, his wife did not appear at a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the death of her brother, North Korea’s second leader, Kim Jong-il.
Together, she and Jang had been considered the ‘Pyongyang power couple’, the real force behind the North Korean leadership, before Jang was labelled a traitor and executed.
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