Kim Jong Un appears to have made his uncle disappear in more ways than one. He (or whoever Jong Un is listening to these days) had his uncle arrested, and then proceeded to airbrush him out of photos/videos.

This is the dramatic moment showing the once-powerful uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un being hauled away by police from a political meeting.

Long regarded as the second most powerful man in the secretive state, Jang Song Thaek was key to his nephew’s rise to power. However, North Korean state-run news agency KCNA announced Monday that he had “led a dissolute and depraved life” and said he had been dismissed for a string of criminal acts including corruption, womanizing and drug-taking.

“Jang and his followers committed criminal acts baffling imagination and they did tremendous harm to our party and revolution,” the agency said in a report following a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party politburo on Sunday.

Kim Jong Un attended and “guided” the meeting which decided to dismiss Jang from all his posts and expel him from the Workers’ Party, KCNA said.
“Affected by the capitalist way of living, Jang committed irregularities and corruption and led a dissolute and depraved life,” the news agency added, saying the decision to remove him was also based on his mismanagement of the country’s financial system and corruption.

Fascinating.

The reports spin that Jang led a dissolute and depraved life, even though Jong Un’s father was known to have any number of capitalist tastes, including mistresses, fine wines and food, a love of Elvis, and extensive movie collection.

I think it’s all about reinforcing the cult of personality and removing anyone who might be perceived as a threat/challenge to his authority.

Of course, all this is done based on public pronouncements of a very secretive regime, so there may well be other reasons involved that have nothing to do with the official reasons.