UPDATED: Report: Kim Jong Un's Uncle Was Eaten Alive By Hungry Dogs [View all]

[DonViejo]

Last edited Fri Jan 3, 2014, 12:14 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: TPM

TOM KLUDT – JANUARY 3, 2014, 9:04 AM EST

Kim Jong Un's uncle was reportedly given one of the most brutal death sentences imaginable last month.

According to NBC News, which cited a report in a Chinese newspaper, Jang Song Thaek and five of his closest aides were stripped of their clothes, tossed in a cage and eaten alive by a pack of 120 hungry dogs. The dogs had reportedly been starved for five days.

Jang was considered to be the young North Korean leader's second-in-command.

The details of the execution were published in a newspaper that serves as an organ of China's Communist Party, but NBC could not independently confirm the report.

More at link

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kim-jong-un-uncle-dogs

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UPDATE:

Something Weird Happened in North Korea: Report

By Joshua Keating

You can do a lot in journalism with the word “report.” For instance, see NBC’s “Kim Jong Un’s executed uncle was eaten alive by 120 hungry dogs: report”.

Did this really happen? We don’t know! Experts seem skeptical. It first appeared in English in the Singapore-based Straits Times, which cited a three-week-old story in the pro-Beijing Hong Kong paper Wen Wei Po, which was itself pretty thinly sourced. Perhaps not quite grasping how the viral Internet works, the Straits Times reporter chose to lead with how the execution would “adversely affect bilateral relations” between North Korea and China rather than the naked man being eaten alive by ravenous dogs.

For what it's worth, a New York Times report from last month cited “South Korean intelligence officials and news media” reported that Jang Song-thaek’s aides were executed by anti-aircraft machine gun but that he himself was killed by “more traditional means.”

But we don’t know for sure that it didn’t happen. There have been other reports of exotic execution methods used against North Korean senior officials. Brutal torture is certainly common in the North Korean penal system.

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/01/03/kim_jong_un_uncle_reported_eaten_by_dogs_why_you_should_be_skeptical_of.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content&mc_cid=2245ea6705&mc_eid=7a8b58c8c3