As the news broke of the fall and execution of Jang Sang Thaek at the end of November, it was hard to think that it was less than two years since Kim Jong Il died and Kim Jong Un replaced him. Even if the more lurid stories of what happened to Jang were probably not true, his was a rapid descent from the apparent heights of power to a hasty death. The man who had walked immediately behind Kim Jong Un in 2011’s funeral procession was publically humiliated as he was denounced and dragged out of a party meeting, dragged before