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| Kim Jong-un (File Photo) |
By John Power
The rumors of a vice premier’s execution are based on a single, anonymous source. How plausible is the report?
Reports of bloody purges in North Korea are nothing new. But even by the standards normally associated with the totalitarian country, current leader Kim Jong-un has garnered a reputation as an especially bloodthirsty despot. Earlier this year, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service claimed that the dictator had overseen the executions of some 70 officials since taking power.
There was little surprise, then, in this week’s reports of the latest bloody purge inside the country. For having the temerity to disagree with Kim’s forestation policy, Vice Premier Choe Yong-gon was shot to death, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
The news contained all the familiar elements of previous purges: a high-powered official who had the ear of the leader; the official’s intolerable intransigence; the official’s swift and brutal demise.
There was also another, largely overlooked similarity: the news was based entirely on a single anonymous source. What’s more, the source’s credibility was not even bolstered with any identifying context. The original Yonhap report, which was picked up hungrily by local and international media, merely described the origin of the explosive claim as a “source who demanded anonymity.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat