Did Kim Jong Un Feed His Uncle To 120 Dogs? Be Skeptical
If you've done much Web surfing today you've probably come across a headline such as this one from NBC News:
"Kim Jong Un's executed uncle was eaten alive by 120 hungry dogs: report"
We'll get to the reasons to be suspicious in a bit. First, here's the short history of that tale about the North Korean leader and his uncle, Jang Song Thaek:
— On Dec. 12, the same day the world heard that Jang had just been tried and executed for alleged crimes against the state, the relatively small Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po claimed Jang had been "stripped naked and thrown into a cage" to be killed and eaten by 120 dogs.
— Twelve days later, The Straits Times of Singapore pointed to the story, adding that Wen Wei Po also claimed the execution by dogs had been supervised by Kim himself and witnessed by 300 senior North Korean officials.
— Then this week, the "month-long rumors ... inexplicably re-emerged," as Japan's NK News says. Why now? "Christopher Green, international editor at The Daily NK warned that mainstream media organizations had a tendency to reprint sensationalist stories on North Korea with little regard for truth."
Ah, the truth. That brings us to the debunking.
The Washington Post's Max Fisher offers five reasons to have doubts about the story, starting with:
"The source. The story originated in a Hong Kong newspaper called Wen Wei Po, which oddly makes the claim without citing a source. With a couple of high-quality exceptions, Hong Kong media have a reputation for sensationalist and tabloidy stories that do not always turn out to be true. But, even by Hong Kong standards, Wen Wei Po is considered an unusually unreliable outlet."