The death of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Malaysia Monday was just the latest execution carried out by the dictator’s brutal regime, according to South Korean media reports. His demise came as he was poisoned by two North Korean female agents while at Kuala Lumpur Airport Monday morning, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo reports.
Kim Jong Nam was the eldest son of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and was once considered his successor. However, he fell afoul of the regime and had lived in exile for several years. Shortly after his half-brother took power in 2011, Kim Jong Nam wrote in a book that the dynastic succession was “a joke to the outside world” and that the regime would soon collapse.
If the reports about his death prove accurate, it would be just the latest of hundreds of executions carried out since Kim Jong Un came to power. As of last December, the North Korean leader had ordered the execution of 340 people, according to the Institute for National Security Strategy, a South Korean think tank. Of those, 140 were senior officers in the country’s government, leading many to conclude that Kim Jong Un has been even more ruthless than his father.
He has extended that brutality to his own family. In December 2013, Kim ordered the arrest and execution of his uncle and close adviser Jang Song Thaek by antiaircraft machine guns. Jang had earlier been forced to watch his two deputies undergo the same ordeal, according to a former deputy director of the National Intelligence Service.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects the construction site of Ryomyong Street, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Jan. 26, 2017 Photo: KCNA/via Reuters
The bloodletting has continued since. Last year, senior Education Ministry official Ri Yong Jin was executed by firing squad for reportedly displaying a “bad attitude” during North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly. Other reports suggested his crime may simply have been slouching during the meeting.
Given that record, it is perhaps no surprise that there have previously been rumors, which later proved to be unfounded, that he had his former girlfriend as well as his wife killed.
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