Following the failure of the North Korean authorities to account for the collapse of an apartment block in Pyongyang earlier this year, a rumor has started to circulate whereby it is said that the incident was primarily the fault of Jang Song Taek, the executed uncle of Kim Jong Eun. 

A source from the North Korean capital reported to Daily NK on the 11th, ¡°Following the collapse, we hear that 7th Bureau [of the Ministry of People¡¯s Armed Forces] officials have been called in and put under investigation, but there¡¯s still no news of a trial or anyone being sent off to labor training units or political prison camps because of it.¡±

However, ¡°Recently people have been saying more and more that ¡®this whole situation is because of dead Jang Song Taek,¡¯¡± the source added. ¡°They say that when he was the head of the Party¡¯s Administration Department he stole cement, and that is why this incident took place.¡±

North Korea has a long history of scapegoating officials for the failings of the authorities more generally. That¡¯s why, in the source¡¯s estimation, the most likely explanation is that the authorities manufactured and spread the new rumor. Since a large number of people died in the incident, and it took place in the capital city, they may feel obliged to provide a scapegoat for the multiple failings it implies. They therefore opted for Jang, an ideal candidate and one who is already dead.

Therefore, the rumor concerning Jang is reportedly spreading with attendant cynical criticism of the state, with even the dead said to be ¡°unfortunate.¡±

¡°In the course of the investigation, they¡¯ll have found that the head of the 7^th Bureau was complicit in it, of course, but so was everyone down to the rank and file site security guards. They will have been worrying about how to deal with it,¡± the source claimed. ¡°So they will have thought that it'd be best to pin it on the uncle, who was already executed for something else, than on someone appointed by the Marshal himself.¡±

It previously emerged that the former head of the 7^th Bureau was from a faction allied with Jang Song Taek, and that he was removed at the time of Jang¡¯s execution and replaced by someone Kim Jong Eun approved personally.