Pardon me for approaching this story with some degree of skepticism; after all, sundry reports that Kim Jong Un fed his traitorous uncle to a pack of wild dogs have almost certainly turned out to be untrue (although, of course, he was still brutally executed as punishment for his disloyalty).
Then again, the Supreme Leader’s appetite for sadism is reportedly well documented, and thus a story like this shouldn’t really surprise any of us, right?
From The Telegraph:
A North Korean official has been executed with a flame-thrower, South Korean media has reported, amid a crackdown on loyalists of Kim Jong-un's purged uncle.
As many as 11 senior party officials with close ties to Jang Song-taek have apparently recently been executed or sent to political prison camps.
Mr Jang was publicly purged in December and executed after being found guilty of corruption and activities that ran counter to the policies of the Workers' Party of Korea. The regime has shut down the department within the Workers' Party that Mr Jang previously headed.
O Sang-hon, a deputy minister at the Ministry of Public Security was "executed by flame-thrower," a source told South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
Mr O was executed because he had followed Mr Jang's instructions to turn the ministry into a personal security division to help safeguard his business dealings, the paper reported.
If true, the Kim regime isn’t just purging their ranks to consolidate and maintain power; they’re executing senior officials in cruel and sickening new ways to send a message. And what message is that exactly? Answer: No one is safe in North Korea, least of all those closest to the Supreme Leader.
The Kim dynasty has always been built on an edifice of fear and violence and propaganda. But now, it seems, Kim Jong Un is happily injecting barbarism into the mix as well.