Leader Of North Korea Executes His Own Uncle

North Korea announced Friday that it had executed the uncle of leader Kim Jong Un, calling him a "traitor for all ages" who opposed Kim's rule and plotted his overthrow.

Jang Song Thaek was executed after admitting to his crimes before a military tribunal Thursday, the North said in a statement released by the state-run news agency. The North said Jang, 67, in attempting to realize his "wild ambition" of supreme power, was "despicable human scum" and "worse than a dog."

Jang's execution comes just days after he was stripped of all his positions and removed from Kim's small inner circle of advisers. His purge, the highest-level leadership change since a power handoff two years ago, marks Kim's boldest but riskiest step yet in eliminating potential rivals and consolidating power in his nuclear-armed police state.