U.S. fears North Korean execution could be prelude to provocation

WASHINGTON
(Reuters) –
North Korean
leader Kim
Jong Un's
execution of
his uncle last
week is an
example of the
worrisome
unpredictability of that regime and could be a
prelude to some kind of provocation by Pyongyang,
top Pentagon officials said on
The execution of Jang Song Thaek on Friday was
the biggest upheaval in years in North Korea, which
has conducted three nuclear tests and this year
raised the possibility of nuclear war with South
Korea and the United States.
"These kind of internal actions by dictators are
often a precursor to provocation to distract
attention from what they're doing inside of that
country," General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the
U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon
news conference.
North Korea's KCNA news agency said last week
Jang had been executed for trying to seize power
and for driving the economy "into an uncontrollable
catastrophe."
But North Korean politics are virtually impenetrable
from outside. Analysts have speculated, for
instance, that Jang could have been purged over a
falling out with Kim or other personal reasons.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that
uncertainty about North Korea's motives is
"concerning to everyone." "That nation is as closed
as any nation in the world. There is no
transparency," Hagel said.
"And so when you see things like this occur, it
heightens the reaction of what people think …
could happen, with that kind of unpredictability.
So, it's not a welcome event at all."
Dempsey did not explicitly say what kind of
provocation he feared from the North. The United
States blames it for the 2010 sinking of a South
Korean warship.
Tensions were heightened earlier this year during
U.S.-South Korean military drills that Pyongyang
branded a "rehearsal for invasion."
In a rare show of force during the drills last year,
two nuclear-capable, bat-winged B-2 stealth
bombers flew 37 1/2 hours from their U.S. base to
drop dummy munitions on a South Korean range,
and then returned home.
The next edition of those annual drills are expected
to be held in March, a Pentagon spokesman said.
Sent From David Aniemeka