The Ministry of State Security's special military tribunal accused Jang not only of using current economic hardships to stage a coup, but also for supporting the disastrous 2009 currency reform that nearly destroyed the economy with hyperinflation. The reform and the special industrial zone he sponsored came from policy decisions at the top, with Kim Jong Il taking credit. Pak Nam Ki, then chief financial director of the party, was swiftly executed by firing squad in 2009. Blame eventually spread to Jang, too, and the tribunal accused him of "selling cheaply," to an unnamed foreign country, resources like coal, timber and minerals as well as the lengthy lease for the Rajin-Sonbong port. Jang was also accused of stealing €5.6 million from the state bank for gambling.
Jang's other crime was factionalism or sectarianism, the act of building private independent networks of cadres loyal to his cause of economic recovery. These cadres are the so-called "foreign exchange earners" scattered through China and Southeast Asia, including North Korean restaurants. NIS sources say dozens of North Koreans in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzen have disappeared in the last few days, apparently going into hiding. So are hundreds of Juche, or self-reliant, businessmen in China and Southeast Asia said to be in panic and hiding, looking for a chance to defect to Seoul or even to the United States, NIS officials say. South Korea should expect more refugee arrivals in the months ahead.
Prospects of continuing purges loom, wiping out any lingering hopes that the Kim regime will follow the Chinese model and embark on economic reform. "The purges have certainly lowered the possibility of the North taking the way of reform," said Suh Sang Kee, the ruling party legislator chairing the parliamentary intelligence committee, flatly adding, "In fact, the purge confirms that the North has no future at all." Even so, Seoul has agreed to meet the North for talks at Kaesong Industrial Zone next week. The North's proposal clearly intends assurances that nothing untoward is underway, and rejection by Seoul runs the risks of aggravating the peninsula's security.
More puzzling though is China's long-term ties with a rogue regime armed with nuclear weapons and missiles. North Korea quickly snuffed out the life of a contact with whom China has comfortably conducted business for many years, despite the fact that Beijing provides half of the North's food and 90 percent of its fuel needs. In a muted reaction, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei blandly described the Cultural Revolution-style executions in the neighboring state as "internal affairs" and expressing hope for "stability."
Deep down China has many reasons to worry about this lurch to anti-market, anti-Chinese extremism by a country that has already flouted China's advice warning against nuclear tests. While the world expects China to restrain its reckless ally, Beijing can't help but ponder how to contain the fallout from a rupture in economic ties with North Korea and not let widespread purges threaten stability on its eastern border. Execution of Jang and associates may force China to rethink relations with Pyongyang.
