North Korean officials depended not only on access to regime insiders to make money but also on the entrenchment of nepotism to obtain plum official assignments or government contracts. Jang’s nephew, the ambassador to Malaysia, was recalled soon after the execution, as were the deputy ambassador to UNESCO in Paris and the ambassadors to Cuba and Sweden. Sources inside North Korea reported that security forces had also targeted Jang’s blood relatives, who were transferred to political prison camps. The regime also replaced the heads of the coal and metal industries, lucrative businesses that could yield a bonanza for the new leaders and their sycophants, given the hundreds of millions of dollars that the North’s abundant natural resources have generated for the regime over the years. Jang’s competitors eagerly accepted the new government posts and state enterprises, filling the spots left vacant by the purge of Jang and his associates.
Since the Jang incident, Kim Jong Un has continued with waves of purges—more than 340 senior officials, according to South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy, a government think tank. Even before the Jang episode, Kim had already purged his defense minister Ri Yong Ho, who was relieved of his duties due to “illness.” Given the dangerous atmosphere of those early years, with all the uncertainty about the new leader’s preferences and approach, it was much easier and safer for everyone, from the rank and file to the highest officials, to not make waves, doubling down on their loyalty to Kim Jong Un rather than offering resistance or criticism. And one can imagine the intense competition among these well-connected men and women to demonstrate their unwavering devotion as they jockeyed for position to exploit the vacuum in order to enrich themselves and their families.
KIM’S MOTIVATIONS
The purge of his uncle was consistent with Kim Jong Un’s bold approach to external relations, the internal changes occurring concurrently with his belligerent and muscular attitude toward the United States and South Korea, as he conducted several provocative actions and issued threats that raised concerns about a military conflict. Kim’s decision to lop off the top layers of his government so early in his rule was probably driven by a number of factors.
First, Kim seemed intent on creating his own base of support rather than relying on his father’s loyalists, who had been installed to ease the grooming process and the transition. Both the surprising dismissal of Ri Yong Ho in July 2012 and Jang’s execution suggested that Kim “is eager to prove that he is no longer the puppet controlled by some senior minister reigning behind the curtain,” according to Zhu Feng, a noted Chinese expert on North Korea, and that “he’s able to establish his absolute authority in the system and has capacity to govern the country directly.” Kim Jong Il elevated Jang’s position to assist with his son’s succession probably to ensure that Jong Un had at his side a family member who was deeply knowledgeable about the bureaucracy and possessed administrative skills, strong ties to China, and a proven ability to raise funds and manage the regime’s financial infrastructure.
But it was those same qualities that made Jang a threat to Jong Un, particularly given the rumors and speculation that Jang was really the one pulling the levers behind the scenes, plus global media commentary about the potential for Jang—whom observers considered more of a reformer—to emerge as the real leader of North Korea. The intense international criticism of Kim’s youth and inexperience, as well as conjecture about North Korea’s collapse under his leadership, was likely also an irritant. Furthermore, as reflected in the criminal charges against him, Jang’s decades of experience and position as a power broker and member of the royal family meant that he had a deep and broad patronage network that was loyal and invested in him rather than his nephew.
Second, Jang’s hubris and the confidence that it engendered in his underlings regarding their control of the regime’s natural resources probably played a role in his ultimate fall. The list of Jang’s crimes included his exploitation of the coal and metal industries, exposing how corruption and patronage reinforce and sustain the power and privilege of the most elite in the North Korean system. Consistent with the charges of economic malfeasance laid out in accusations against Jang, reports surfaced that he and his followers had engaged in a struggle for control of North Korea’s state-run natural resources businesses. According to various South Korean and American reports, the battle for