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www.groovekorea.com / February 2014 36 D o not be fooled by the stunned silence that followed in its wake; the purging, trial and execution of Jang Song-thaek that took place in early December 2013 should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Ignore the sensationalism of the headlines, too: The act made perfect sense within the brutal logic of the political structure in which it took place. North Korea is governed under an authori- tarian system. Although it is extreme even by the grim standards of the genre, it is not sui generis. Power dominates everything in all types of authoritarian polity; the allocation of power is what decides successes and failures, rises and falls. Wealth is a secondary benefit of the successful co-option of political power. Put simply, money is not the goal of politics in the North Korean system. On those occa- sions when it is allowed to become the goal in a way that cannot be ignored or finessed into political insignificance, danger follows close behind. When former Work ers’ Party International Secretary Hwang Jang-yop told one of his intimate, well-guarded Tuesday afternoon “Democracy Lectures” that the ruling creed in North Korea is “not to have more power than the leader, and not to earn more than their sal- aries,” he was not speaking in riddles. Indeed, Hwang never spoke about the North Korean regime in riddles. Rather, he was telling the world about the nature of power in North Ko- ThE nORTh KOREA COLUMn Edited by Matthew Lamers (mattlamers@groovekorea.com)ers@groovekorea.c+om) InsIGhT Kim Jong-un’s Christmas power grab Column by Christopher Green / Illustration by Michael Roy