Reports of the absence of Kim Jong-eun's uncle (by marriage) Jang Song-thaek from public ceremony, began to circulate some days ago.
Some NK watchers have counted Jang as the No.2 person in the NK leadership line-up
The reports were sourced to the South Korean Intelligence service, so I didn't take too much notice, as a fierce propaganda war rages between the two Koreas. The report also said that two of his aides had been executed. The report filtered through various western news outlets, all reported as fact, when all we had to go on at the time was rumour. Jang's absence from public life could have been attributed to many things. He's 77 y.o. so his absence could have meant he wasn't well, or maybe not sleeping well at night due to prostate trouble or any other guess.
Now comes some news with a firmer foundation.
Reference: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/06/us-korea-north-defector-idUSBRE9B504F20131206
Aide to N. Korean leader's ousted uncle seeks asylum in South: media
SEOUL Fri Dec 6, 2013 6:01am EST
A paramilitary police official stands guard next to a fence, which blocks a road towards the South Korea embassy, in Beijing December 6, 2013.
CREDIT: REUTERS/JASON LEE(Reuters) - North Korea could be facing its most serious defection in 15 years as South Korean media said on Friday that a man who managed funds for the ousted uncle of leader Kim Jong Un had fled the isolated country and sought asylum in South Korea.
The aide, who was not named, was being protected by South Korean officials in a secret location in China, cable news network YTN and Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper said, citing sources familiar with the matter.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) had no knowledge of the defection, lawmakers said in Seoul after they were briefed by the head of the spy agency.
YTN said the man managed funds for Jang Song Thaek, whose marriage to Kim's aunt and proximity to the young leader made him one of the most powerful men in North Korea.
Jang was relieved of his posts last month, according to the NIS, and the television network said the sacking could have followed the aide's defection.
YTN said the aide also had knowledge of funds belonging to Kim and his father, former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. If true, the defection would likely be the first time in 15 years a significant insider from the Pyongyang regime has switched sides.
Impoverished but nuclear-capable North Korea and the rich, democratic South are still technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
A spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry, Kim Eui-do, and officials at the Foreign Ministry said the defection report could not be confirmed.
Jung Chung-rae, a member of the South Korean parliament's Intelligence Committee, told reporters the intelligence service had said it did not know about the defection, but that two of Jang's relatives who were serving in embassies overseas had been recalled.
"It is true that Jang's brother-in-law and nephew have been called back to North Korea," Jung cited the NIS as saying.
Jang himself is alive and appears to be safe, South Korean officials have said.
Jang has survived previous purges and official displeasure, thanks largely to his sometimes tempestuous marriage to Kim Kyong Hui, the daughter of North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung.
The position that China will take is not clear. If, as the remainder of the report states, the Chinese government prevented Jang's money-minder form leaving China, they may be waiting until the situation in NK becomes clearer. Is it just a family row, or are policy differences at the centre of this row.
China's slight move away from support for the NK regime in recent months is not likely to have endeared them to many in the NK administration. And China continues to try to grow a market economy in NK, according to a paper presented at a recent conference on NK at the Australian National University in Canberra.
The above Reuters report continues:
"WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION," CHINA SAYS
North Korea's ruling Kim family is deeply venerated and feared. It is ruthless about protecting its security and privacy and little is known about the inner workings of the regime.
The aide requested asylum about two months ago and was currently in China, YTN said. In Beijing, there were no signs of any additional security around the South Korean embassy.
Asked about the South Korean media reports, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: "We have noted the reports, but do not understand the situation."
South Korea's intelligence service has also said two of Jang's close associates were executed last month for corruption.
These reports have not been confirmed either.
YTN said Jang's aide fled to China some time in late September or early October and that Jang could have been sacked because of this.
"A source familiar with the matter said the aide immediately requested asylum from the South Korean government and South Korean officials are currently protecting him at a secret place in China," it said.
China, Pyongyang's only major ally, usually resists allowing defectors from North Korea to seek asylum elsewhere.
YTN said the aide tried to escape to Laos, a route favored by other defectors, but Chinese authorities prevented him from leaving.
U.S. officials have also sought custody of the aide, the television station said.
About 25,000 North Koreans have defected to the South but few of them were highly placed in Pyongyang.
The major defectors include Hwang Jang Yop, a high-level Worker's Party ideologue who was the architect of the Juche (self-reliance) ideology of North Korea, who sought asylum in the South in 1997.
Kim Jong Un's aunt, his mother's sister, fled to the United States in 1998, media reports have said.
In 2002, a North Korean nuclear scientist named Kyong Won Ha escaped the country, although few details are known.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Nick Macfie)
Kim Jong-nam
