North Korean House of Cards

ut his pleas went unanswered. At the end of November, both Ri Ryong-ha and Jang
149, 150
Su-gil were branded as Jang Song-taek’s “people” (se-ryeok) and publicly executed.
On December 9, 2013, North Korean media featured a lengthy report
of an enlarged meeting of the Politburo that took place the previous day, at
which a decision was made to dismiss Jang Song-taek from all of his positions.
This included membership to the Politburo itself, as well as Vice Chairman of
the NDC. The Politburo also removed Jang from the KWP. In unusually harsh
language, the Politburo report stated:
The Party served warning to Jang several times and dealt blows at
him, watching his group’s anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional
acts as it has been aware of them from long ago. But Jang did not
pay heed to it but went beyond tolerance limit. That was why the
Party eliminated Jang and purged his group. 151
Image 8: Senior North Korean officials observe Jang’s removal from the December 8, 2013
Politburo meeting. (Source: KCTV screen capture)
149 “Explosion of Soaring Rage of Millions of Soldiers and People, Traitor for All Ages Firmly
Punished—Special Military Tribunal of the DPRK Ministry of State Security Against Jang Song Taek,
Unparalleled Traitor for All Ages,” KCBS, December 12, 2013. The Special Tribunal Report on the
Execution of Jang Song-taek spelled out the regime’s contempt for Ri Ryong-ha in particular. It noted
that “every time the bastard [Jang Song-taek] was transferred to a different job since the 1980s, the bastard
carried fawning bastard Ri Ryong-ha on his coattails and even elevated to the post of First Department
Vice Director at the Party Central Committee the same individual who was kicked out for his factional
behavior rejecting the Party’s unitary leadership, thus making him the bastard’s right-hand man.”
150 Later reporting claimed that Pak Chun-hong, another Vice Director of the KWP
Administrative Department, was also executed. This same reporting claimed that Ri Myong-su, the
former Minister of People’s Security, had either been placed under house arrest or executed.
151 Nodong Sinmun, December 9, 2013.
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
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