Kim Jong Un reportedly bypassed the usual capital punishment methods and went straight for brutal, based on reports claiming that the North Korean official executed his uncle Jang Song Thaek and his five aides by literally feeding them to the dogs.
According to a shocking account, Kim Jong Un's uncle Jang Song Thaek, who was the former No. 2 official in the regime, was stripped of his clothing and tossed into a cage together with five of his aides.
"Then 120 hounds, starved for three days, were allowed to prey on them until they were completely eaten up. This is called 'quan jue', or execution by dogs," claimed a report in one of Singapore's daily newspapers. The daily got its information from a vivid descriptio of the former official's execution in a Hong Kong newspaper that serves as the Chinese government's official mouthpiece.
The Straits Times reported that Jang's execution lasted approximately one hour, in which North Korea supreme leader Kim Jong Un supervised the process along with 300 senior government officials in its Dec. 24, 2013 edition.
The first account of the execution appeared in Wen Wei Po newspaper last Dec. 12, 2013, however two American national security officials requested to give their comments on the issue said they have not heard the account.
The former official's execution has only recently gained traction in the U.S.
Despite the fact that China acts as North Korea's ally and patron, relations between the two countries have been reportedly strained. The United States has continuously prodded Beijing to become more active in coercing Kim Jong Un's Stalinist government in Pyongyan to surrender its nuclear weapons.
The Chinese government have reportedly leaked the account of the execution as a signal of its anger towards Kim's regime, suggested the Singaporean daily.
The United States has been trying to get a proper profile of the kind of regime Kim Jong Un plans for North Korea, amid worries in the White House that the supreme leader has a more reckless approach than his father, Kim Jong Il.
Kim Jong Un succeeded his father Jong Il as supreme leader of North Korea in December 2011.
