CHAPTER 1 REMOVED On December 8 2013 a large meeting took place in North Korea's capital city of Pyongyang The meeting included many government officials Among them was Kim Jong Un the Supreme Leader of North Korea Jang Song Thaek also attended He was the vice chairman of the National Defense Commission Many experts considered Jang the second most powerful person in the country Pyongyang is North Korea's most advanced city Citizens need permission to live there
Jang had been advising Kim since December 2011 when Kim first took office Two police officers interrupted the meeting to confront Jang As everyone watched the officers arrested and removed Jang from the building After he was arrested the government run Korean Central News Agency KCNA made a broadcast The broadcast accused Jang of criminal acts It accused Jang of being corrupt taking drugs and other crimes KCNA blamed Jang for poor management of North Korea's finances The news agency said Jang only pretended to be loyal to Kim Days later Jang's jailers brought him to a North Korean military academy There he was forced to watch the execution of two of his top assistants The executions were so brutal that Jang fainted Days later he was killed in the way same
Jang Song Thaek and Kim Jong Un appeared at a military parade together in 2012 Kim had watched the officers arrest Jang Foreign government experts suspected that Kim had ordered the arrests and executions Since becoming North Korea's leader Kim had purged numerous people He feared that they might plot against him So in some respects what happened to Jang was not surprising What was surprising however was that Kim had done this to his uncle
