North Korea confirms Kim Jong Un's powerful uncle ousted

North Korea confirmed Monday the dismissal of Jang Song Thaek, the once powerful uncle of leader Kim Jong Un, for what it described as a string of criminal acts including corruption, womanizing and drug-taking.

South Korea's spy agency last week said it believed Jang, long regarded as the second most powerful man in the secretive state, had been relieved of his posts in November.

The sacking means Pyongyang is undergoing its biggest leadership upheaval since the death in 2011 of former leader Kim Jong Il, the younger Kim's father.

"Jang and his followers committed criminal acts baffling imagination and they did tremendous harm to our party and revolution," the North's KCNA news agency said in a report following a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party politburo on Sunday.

The meeting, which Kim attended and "guided," decided to dismiss Jang from all his posts and expel him from the Workers' Party, KCNA reported.

KCNA listed a series of acts committed by Jang that it said led to the decision to remove him, including mismanagement of the country's financial system, corruption, womanizing and abusing alcohol and drugs.

"Jang pretended to uphold the party and leader but was engrossed in such factional acts as dreaming different dreams and involving himself in double-dealing behind the scene," KCNA said.

"Affected by the capitalist way of living, Jang committed irregularities and corruption and led a dissolute and depraved life."

Jang is married to Kim's aunt, the daughter of the North's founding leader Kim Il Sung, and was widely considered to be working to ensure his nephew firmly established his grip on power in the past two years.

Last week a South Korean official said Jang was likely alive and in no immediate physical danger, as was his wife, Kim Kyong Hui.

Experts say Jang's removal will help the younger Kim consolidate his power base with a group of younger aides.

Jang had been a prominent fixture in many of the reports and photographs of Kim Jong Un's public activities, but his appearances have tapered off sharply this year and he has not been in official media since early November, a fact that South Korea’s Unification Ministry confirmed to Al Jazeera last week.

South Korean media said on Friday that a man who managed funds for Jang had fled and sought asylum in South Korea.

The aide, who has not been named, was being protected by South Korean officials in a secret location in China, South Korean cable news network YTN and Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper said, citing sources familiar with the matter. 

A number of Korea-watchers had been skeptical of preliminary reports on Jang’s ouster, originally leaked to two lawmakers by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS).

Analysts including Columbia University professor and Korean affairs expert Charles K. Armstrong said Jang’s ouster may indicate there is a destabilizing power struggle raging in Pyongyang.

Al Jazeera and Reuters