In a move straight from George Orwell’s “1984,” North Korea is attempting to wipe any mention of executed “traitor” Jang Song-thaek from its state-controlled Internet.
Mr. Jang, the uncle of Kim Jong-un and former vice chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, had roughly 500 mentions of his named deleted as of Friday.
“The scale of what they’re attempting to do here is unprecedented,” said Frank Feinstein, who works for a website of specialists tracking the Hermit Kingdom’s activities. “North Korea’s websites are somewhat of an unknown quantity, and nothing on this scale has been detected before.”
In a statement released by the North Korean regime, Mr. Jang was referred to as “a traitor to the nation for all ages who perpetrated anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts in a bid to overthrow the leadership of our party and state and the socialist system.”
He was reportedly executed after a military tribunal found him guilty of attempting to overthrow the government.
Some experts worry that the perceived power move by Mr. Kim is actually more indicative of the dictator’s tenuous control over his military.
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• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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