Report: China Tried to Assassinate Kim Jong-un

File: 1478381604075.jpg (52KB, 800x570px) Image search: [Google]

52KB, 800x570px

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was the target of a Chinese-backed coup attempt in 2012 that has damaged relations between the to countries and has led to missile provocations against China.

http://www.trunews.com/article/report-china-tried-to-assassinate-kim-jong-un

The Nikkei Asian Review, a Japanese business journal, reported last week that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un had his half-brother murdered earlier this year in response to a 2012 Chinese plot to replace him in a coup. When President Xi Jinping told President Donald Trump his country didn’t have the sway over North Korea that everyone assumed, he may have been telling the truth. According to the report, relations between China and its diminutive neighbor are at “all-time lows” because of the aforementioned plot. The report states:

>The drama began on Aug. 17, 2012 with a meeting in Beijing between Kim Jong Un's uncle Jang Song-thaek, who … is said to have proposed a plot to oust Kim Jong-un and replace him with his elder half-brother Kim Jong-nam with China's backing. It was a dramatic proposal, but Hu was not in a position to give a definitive answer. Just days before, at the annual Beidaihe gathering with party elders, his predecessor and rival Jiang Zemin had exposed a scandal involving Hu's right-hand man Ling Jihua, severely weakening Hu's position … Having learned of Jang's plot through a wiretap, [Zhou Yongkang] secretly informed Kim Jong-un … Upon hearing of the treachery, the North Korean leader flew into a rage and at the end of 2013, his uncle was executed. Kim Jong Nam, the elder brother who Jang had favored, was murdered with a super-toxic nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur International airport on February 13 this year.

The report also suggests that recent North Korean missile provocations have been aimed at China just as much as the U.S. It notes that a May intermediate-range missile test was meant to send a message from Kim to Xi: Our new ballistic missile can strike anywhere in China