Around the same time the Straits Times ran with the Wen Wei Po piece, the New York Times, citing South Korean intelligence, reported that some of Jang’s associates were executed using antiaircraft guns while Jang himself was killed “by more traditional means.” Plus, the account does not fit with other reporting on Jang’s ouster. China’s powers of information control are not perfect, but the arms of its propaganda machine tend to wave in synch. It is striking that Wen Wei Po was the only Chinese media outlet with the story. Very few foreign reporters have access to the country and those who do, like the Associated Press, are kept on a tight leash. North Korea’s stubborn isolation makes it nearly impossible for reporters to independently verify this type of claim. ( MORE: Rodman’s North Korea Visit Won’t Hide Kim Jong Un’s Insecurities)įirst, there is the reporting itself. It feels possible that such an over-the-top crime would warrant an over-the-top punishment. It also seems to fit the blustery language of North Korean state media which so memorably denounced Jang as a “despicable political careerist and trickster” guilty of “thrice-cursed acts of treachery.” Evil-esque figure, a clownish, brutal young despot that finds amusement in wielding his terrible power. The version of events jibes well with media accounts that portray Kim Jong Un as a Dr. ( MORE: Kim Jong Un’s Uncle Was ‘Despicable Human Scum,’ Says Pyongyang’s Propaganda Machine) The dogs preyed on the prisoners “until they were completely eaten up,” according to the Straits Times, a Singaporean newspaper, who picked up the story on Dec. 12 reported that the instead of being executed by a firing squad, as is typical, Jang was stripped naked, thrown in a cage with five of his associates, and devoured by 120 hounds as Kim Jong Un and 300 officials watched. That’s the claim of Beijing-linked Hong Kong newspaper, Wen Wei Po, which on Dec. But was he killed by a pack of half-starved dogs? Follow Jong Un’s late uncle was “worse than a dog,” according to the blustery state media account of his purge.