It has now been five years since one of the most memorable events of the Kim Jong Un era: the public announcement that the Supreme Leader’s uncle, Jang Song Thaek, had been executed. To the day it remains, arguably, the biggest sensation Kim Jong Un’s North Korea has offered the world.

To remember it, let us look back on the life – and death – of uncle Jang.

Jang Song Thaek was born on January 22, 1946 in Chongjin. This was a terrible timefor his mother to be pregnant. The economy of northern Korea was in a state of