I don't know much about North Korean politics (but when has that ever stopped me from commenting before? Plus, I read The Orphan Master's Son), but if Kim Jong-Un keeps executing high-level people in the NoKo government, doesn't that increase the chance of a coup? His government can abuse regular people all it wants, but the only reason the elite in the country who have actual resources put up with his bullshit is because they think they are protected from all the arbitrary risk other North Koreans face. If the elite begin to believe that they will eventually face a real risk of execution, it becomes in their interest to pre-empt that any way they can.
