North Korean authorities reportedly have arrested several hundred relatives of the recently deposed uncle of the nation’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un. 
 
 The Daily NK newspaper reports that a source in the North Korean capitol city of Pyongyang said the arrests occurred on Dec. 13, a day after Jang Song-thaek was executed for a variety of crimes against the state. 
 
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 "They took away a few hundred people," the source told the Daily NK. "At around 10 p.m. on the night of [December] 13, the day after Jang was executed, armed men from the Ministry of State Security arrived in the Pyongchon area of Pyongyang, where a lot of his relatives lived." 
 
 "It was not just his close relatives who were taken away, but distant members of his family too, like relatives of his father.” 
 
 Song-thaek was a leading official in North Korea before his death, and married to the only sister of Kim Jong-il, the nation’s former supreme leader and the father of Kim Jong-un. 
 
 The Telegraph reports Song-thaek was charged with 24 crimes, from "gnawing at the unity and cohesion of the party" to "dreaming different dreams." 
 
 He was also reportedly charged with "creating illusion about himself," to "committing irregularities and corruption that led to a dissolute and depraved life," having "improper relations with several women" and "squandering foreign currency at casinos.” 
 
 The Daily NK is run by defectors from the totalitarian regime and focuses on North Korean news and affairs. ||||| Several hundred relatives of Jang Song-thaek, executed recently on charges of plotting to overthrow the North Korean state, have been rounded up and sent to political prison camps. 
 
 It is common in North Korea for family members of anyone found guilty of a crime to be punished, but the scale of these arrests underline the lengths to which Kim Jong-un is going to eradicate his uncle and former mentor from the nation's history. 
 
 "At around 10pm on the night of [December] 13, the day after Jang was executed, armed men from the Ministry of State Security arrived in the Pyongchon area of Pyongyang, where a lot of his relatives lived," a source in the North Korean capital told the Daily NK newspaper. 
 
 "They took away a few hundred people," the source told the newspaper, which is run by defectors from the regime. 
 
 "It was not just his close relatives who were taken away, but distant members of his family too, like relatives of his father. 
 
 "In these circumstances, even his relatives outside Pyongyang are not safe," he added. 
 
 Mr Jang was charged with no fewer than 24 abuses of power or contraventions of North Korean law with the ultimate aim of overthrowing the leadership. 
 
 These ranged from "gnawing at the unity and cohesion of the party" to "dreaming different dreams" and "creating illusion about himself." 
 
 Also accused of "committing irregularities and corruption that led to a dissolute and depraved life," having "improper relations with several women" and "squandering foreign currency at casinos, Mr Jang was summarily executed. 
 
 As soon as he was arrested, however, relatives and anyone with links to a man who had previously been seen as untouchable realised that the state's retribution would not end with him. Execution is the likely punishment for his closest relatives or political allies, while others will be dispatched to labour colonies for the rest of their lives. 
 
 Some of those at risk volunteered to submit themselves to "revolutionisation" by going to labour in mines or on farms. 
 
 "It seems like they are trying to take self-imposed punishment in order to evade a more stringent one, but they will find it difficult to escape that way," the Daily NK said. "Jang's crimes are 'anti-party, counter-revolutionary factionalism,' so of course they will have to say that his family challenged the system. 
 
 "For this reason, severe punishment awaits."
– Less than a week after reports emerged that Kim Jong Un had staged a major power play by ousting his powerful uncle from government, North Korea has announced that the uncle has been executed, reports the BBC. The state news agency says Jang Song Thaek was sentenced to death by a military tribunal as a traitor, and the sentence was carried out immediately. Jang—who had been forcibly removed from a Community Party forum in front of cameras earlier in the week—had been married to the sister of Kim's father. The state news agency accused him of plotting to overthrow his nephew and labeled him "worse than a dog," reports AP. He had generally been considered the nation's second most powerful figure and once served as a mentor to his nephew. Other charges against him included corruption, drug use, gambling, and leading a "depraved life." Analysts generally view the move as Kim consolidating his power.