Jang Song Thaek’s path could best be described as full of ups and downs. A handsome, ambitious character, Jang nonetheless did not come from privileged family in the North yet, against the odds, was let into the household of the ruling Kim family as a son-in-law. Yet even his romance with national founder Kim Il Sung’s daughter, Kim Kyong Hui, has a shadow cast over it considering his life’s tragic end.

Ra Jongyil, former deputy head of the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS)’s North Korea department, has published a book on Jang entitled The Path of Jang Song Thaek: Rebellious Outsider. Ra sheds light on the contradictions between Jang’s life as a talented individual but also one who married into the Kim inner circle. As Ra told NK News, the book includes dramatizations, including a part where Jang compares his life to Julien Sorel, the main character in the French novel The Red and the Black. The book is, however, based on Ra’s many sources inside and outside the country, as well as widely known facts about the North Korean leadership during the same time.