Informing conspiracy of Treason

Japan Broadcasting Corporation, or NHK, delivered a scoop on the reason of current deterioration of relationship between China and North Korea on Tuesday night. According to the report, Kim Jong-un executed his uncle-in-law and highly ranked officer in Kim Jong-il regime, Jang Song-thaek, after knowing that Jang had tried to raise Jong-un’s elder brother, Kim Jong-nam, to the top leader of North Korea. The information was brought by a Chinese senior leader, Zhou Yongkang, to Jong-un. Pyongyang embraced fundamental doubt on China, not disturbing subversion in North Korea.

 

NHK reported the news based on information from a source in Chinese government. In August 2012, 8 month after the death of former supreme leader Kim Jong-il, Jang told then-Chinese President Hu Jintao his intention to put Jong-nam on the top of North Korea in a meeting in Beijing. Although it is unclear how Hu responded to Jang’s idea, Zhou as one of the members of Chinese Politburo Standing Committee at the time secretly informed Jong-un the story early 2013. Incurring Jong-un’s serious anger, Jang was executed with crime of treason in December 2013.

 

North Korea was frustrated with China’s negligence of the plot of treason. It is possible for North Korea to have realized China’s notion that Jong-nam was easier to handle than Jong-un. With deep suspect on China, North Korea advanced to further nuclear and missile development thereafter. China also lost its credibility on North Korea of execution of Jang, who had been an important liaison between China and North Korea, and escalating intimidation.

 

Chinese source also indicated NHK that the information from Zhou might have caused assassination of Jong-nam in Malaysia last year. It is possible that Jong-un have thought that his status would not be stable as long as Jong-nam was alive. While it is still unclear why Zhou informed the story, which later caused Zhou’s downfall with crime of divulging national secret, Zhou seemed to have tried to curb China’s involvement in North Korean politics.

 

After Kim Jong-un succeeded his father, there has been no top meeting between China and North Korea, that fact which has made an uncomfortable era for both governments. If China was involved in a conspiracy of treason in North Korea, Kim Jong-un must have been focusing on defending himself even exploiting intimidation with consecutive missile launchings or nuclear tests. The North’s recent soft attitude to South Korea can be explained with necessity for getting rid of isolation. It must be China that is responsible for security deterioration in Northeastern Asia these years.