“It really reminded me of a video that we saw of Saddam Hussein doing the same thing, having people plucked out of an audience, and people sitting there sweating, and nobody daring to move or do anything,” Secretary of State John Kerry said during an interview with ABC News in Vietnam Sunday.
Kerry said the communist North Korean regime has executed a number of senior officials, including Jang, which “tells us a significant amount about the instability, internally, of the regime.”
“This is not the first execution. There have been a significant number of executions taking place over the last months which we’re aware of,” he said.
He also said, “It tells us a lot about, first of all, how ruthless and reckless he (Kim Jong-un) is. And it also tells us a lot about how insecure he is, to a certain degree.”
During the interview, the secretary stressed the importance of continuing the effort to denuclearize North Korea. “It underscores the importance for all of us of finding a way forward with North Korea in order to denuclearize the peninsula.”
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com