Chinese experts have described the recent purge of Jang Sung Taek and associated secondary purges as an attempt to strengthen the North Korean system, but there have been warnings that it marks a step down the road to ruin for the regime of Kim Jong Eun.
On the 10th, Dr. Shujie Yao of the University of Nottingham in the UK commented in an article for Caijing that even though the world has entered the 21st century, the Kim regime is still using methods of dictatorship “from half a century ago,” and that it is “not a good thing to employ such repressive methods to solidify one’s regime.”
Furthermore, “Dynasties that rely on authority to rule have never lasted long, and the Kim dynasty is no exception. It looks at the moment like there is nothing particularly special about the dismissal of Jang Sung Taek, and when history scholars look back on today’s Chosun [North Korea] they will see it as the prelude to ruin.”
Elsewhere, a commentary piece carried by Hong Kong-based Ifeng TV noted, “The purge of Jang was designed to warn high-ranked leaders in North Korea that they too could become the ‘2nd Jang Sung Taek,’ and this can be used to create unease in the regime and society.”
However, it then went on to predict, “Kim will take serious action in the direction of economic reform in order to generate the results needed to gain the trust of the Party, military, and people of North Korea.”
Professor Zhang Liangui of IISS Central Party School said in an interview with Chinese radio on on the 9th, “Jang Sung Taek is a figure who had been in charge of tasks in the North Korean economy for a long time,” adding, “The purge of Jang suggests the possibility that North Korea is going to return to concentrating on nuclear weapons once again.”
“Jang Sung Taek had insisted that they should focus investment on improving the economy since they already possessed nuclear weapons; however, other North Korean figures insisted that they must further develop their nuclear plans,” he went on, before warning, “These types of policies will have a significant influence on nearby countries.”
