North Korean Dictator Teaches Us A Few Handy Lessons
Shyamon Jayasinghe
On December 13th in the year that has just passed North Korean Leader ( Dictator) self-styled as “Dear Leader,” Kim-Jong-Un, had his uncle Jong Song Thaek executed in public for “treachery.” The uncle’s aides were also executed along with him. An extract of a news story published in the Straits Times is given below. This gives a brief snapshot about the execution. I thought of presenting this story along with a few comments for the benefit of Colombo Telegraph readers as this incident throws light on the character and operational path of all dictators. Kim-Jong-Un’s uncle had helped to establish this young brute as successor when his father died. However, they soon fell out and the fall-out climaxed with the public execution.
”AFTER North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un declared his uncle to be “despicable human scum, he got the latter executed in public.
The details were disclosed in a report, where unlike previous executions of political prisoners which were carried out by firing squads with machine guns, Jang Song Thaek was stripped naked and thrown into a cage, along with his five closest aides, the Straits Times reports.
“Then 120 hounds, starved for three days, were allowed to prey on them until they were completely eaten up. This is called “quan jue”, or execution by dogs.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (left) with Jang Song Thaek, who was the vice-chairman of the National Defence Commission, at a cemetery for Korean War veterans in Pyongyang in July. Photo courtesy AP
The report also said the entire process lasted for an hour, with Jong-Un, watching it along with 300 senior officials.”
It is instructive for us to note the following lessons from this harrowing event and the narrative leading to it:
(1) How dictators get swallowed up by a consuming passion to bring anything and everything under control. Kim has achieved this in great speed. All obstructions on the path are mercilessly destroyed. He saw his uncle and aides as a check on his ambition. The nature of this execution shows the vindictiveness and hate that dictators develop against their “enemies.”
(2) The judge who tried the uncle was obviously Kim’s appointee and he gave the verdict that the Dictator wanted. This points to the danger of having a dependent judiciary. A judiciary in any country is supposed to be the last resort for those seeking relief and protection from the abuse of executives.
(3) Kim has been lying and making bogus threats all along. Dictators tend to cut corners, truth being one of the easiest to trim.
(4) Dictators tend to present to the public and the world a show of prosperity, pomp and glory. We all know that North Koreans are mostly struggling in the margins to survive. Yet Kim and his father before him concentrated on diverting resources to building a nuclear base. One of the poorest nations of the world has thus become a nuclear power.