If North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s uncle was on your Christmas card list, better scratch him off.  The hermit kingdom’s official news agency has announced that the “Traitor Jang Song Thaek” has been executed.  Until a few days ago, he was believed to be the second most powerful person in North Korea.

Superlatives abounded in the story running on North Korea’s official news network KCNA.  It said that a special military tribunal had been convened to deal with the “traitor for all ages,” accused of having attempted to overthrow the state “by all sorts of intrigues and despicable methods with a wild ambition to grab the supreme power of our party and state.”

It described Jang as “despicable human scum” and “worse than a dog,” and said he had betrayed his party and leader.  Other accusations included womanizing, drug use, gambling, eating at expensive restaurants, and undergoing medical treatment in a foreign country.

And conveniently, “All the crimes committed by the accused were proved in the course of hearing and were admitted by him.”  Once guilt was established, he was executed.

“Kim Jong Un is willing to kill his own (family).  He’s showing that really he has no mercy or pity.  To me it’s a very worrisome sign.  You see these extremist actions, you really have to take it very seriously,” said Alexandre Monsourav, a specialist in North Korea at the U.S.–Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies.

“Whether it’s his young age or personal insecurity making him do this, we need to be very careful around him.”