What comes next after North Korea's purge
The latest political convulsion in North Korea has no direct connection with the news, a day later, of US plans to base anti-ballistic missile systems on the Pacific island of Guam.
The latest political convulsion in North Korea has no direct connection with the news, a day later, of US plans to base anti-ballistic missile systems on the Pacific island of Guam.
But the two events evoke China's concern with instability in its neighbour. The anti-missile systems are ostensibly to defend against the unpredictable nuclear rogue state. But analysts point out that Pyongyang's secretive nuclear and missile development programmes in defiance of international opinion give the US an excuse to increase missile defences in Northeast Asia, which may be intended to counter China.
North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-un is continuing to purge the regime's senior echelon. Such power struggles are usually shrouded in secrecy. Military chief Ri Yong-ho's unexpected "retirement" last July for "health reasons" is an example. The opacity prompts much speculation, given the importance of North Korea as a buffer between China and South Korea, host to US military forces.
Nothing prepared North Korea-watchers for the very public and humiliating purging of Jang Song-thaek, a core member of the ruling elite and mentor and uncle to Kim.
State television broadcast pictures of Jang being dragged away from a party meeting by guards, amid claims of faction-building, womanising and gambling and the like. Officially Beijing, Pyongyang's ally and economic lifeline, said it was an internal affair. Privately, it is likely to have been dismayed. Jang, 67, had visited China often and had been considered an advocate of economic reform that China has been urging on North Korea to improve the lives of its impoverished people.
If Jang's downfall means Kim is still consolidating his power, it is to be hoped military hardliners do not come out on top. North Korea needs to heed international pleas to return to the six-nation talks on nuclear disarmament, and push ahead with 14 recently announced special economic zones that could help undo its dysfunctional interface with the rest of the world.
