WASHINGTON – Secretary of State John Kerry said North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un’s “ruthless and reckless” actions reminded him of Saddam Hussein.
Kerry made the comparison because of reports last week that Kim had his uncle and mentor Jang Song Thaek executed for being a “traitor” and “human scum.”
“It really reminded me of a video that we saw of Saddam Hussein doing the same thing, having people plucked out of an audience, and people sitting there sweating, and nobody daring to move or do anything,” Kerry said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
“This is not the first execution. There have been a significant number of executions taking place over the last months which we’re aware of,” said Kerry, who was visiting Vietnam Sunday.
“This is the nature of this ruthless, horrendous dictatorship and of his insecurities,” he said. “It’s an ominous sign of the instability and of the danger that does exist.”
He added, “To have a nuclear weapon, potentially, in the hands of somebody like Kim … just becomes even more unacceptable.”
Kim, 30, became the supreme leader of the reclusive regime in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.