Smoky Mountain Journal -WORLD: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un Had Uncle, Half Brother Executed In Failed Coup Attempt Earlier This Year




The Great Smoky Mountain Journal Staff Reports Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 11:24 AM

WORLD: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un Had Uncle, Half Brother Executed In Failed Coup Attempt Earlier This Year
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly had his uncle executed and his half-brother killed in a daring airport assassination earlier this year after learning about a Chinese-backed plan to have him ousted, a Japanese magazine claimed. Kim took power in 2011 after his father, Kim Jong Il, died. In six years, the leader purged senior officials and relatives allegedly plotting to overthrow him and his regime. Kim's uncle, Jang Song Thaek, was executed in 2013 when he was accused of being a "traitor" and committing a series of "hideous crimes." His exiled half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, died this year when two women smeared his face with the banned VX nerve agent in Kuala Lumpar airport in Malaysia. Two women are being charged in his death, although they claim they were duped into thinking they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera TV show.