Hot on the heels of Jim Jong Un’s sacking of his top lieutenant comes word of …not much… out of China in reaction:
“China doesn’t have many connections with (North Korea) at the top level to begin with. Jang’s purge means that China lost one of the few conduits they had,” said Roger Cavazos, a North Korea watcher at the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability.
Jang, the uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong Jun, was stripped of his titles for alleged transgressions including instigating party dissent and squandering party funds on drugs, gambling and women.
Under North Korea’s policy of collective punishment, all of his associates are likely to be purged along with him, including many members of the 2012 delegation.
Of all the possible outcomes in North Korea, I figured the really, really bad ones might happen sooner, the really bad ones might take slightly longer, and that this option would take longest of all.
But Jang is gone after just two years — no clue what happens next.
Other than it will either be really bad, or really, really bad.
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