North Korea's latest Photoshop fail

North Korea has said leader Kim Jong-Un's uncle was removed from office for committing "criminal" acts and for leading a "counter-revolutionary faction", but he has also since been dismissed from any official state broadcasts.

Jang Song-Thaek, seen as the regent to the young Kim, was relieved of all posts and titles for allegedly building a power base to challenge the leadership of the communist state, the North's state media said.

As members of the online community hastily pointed out following his dismissal, Jang Song-Thaek was conspicuously absent from the latest airings of senior North Korean leaders' military visits.

South Korea's spy agency said last week that Jang had apparently been purged and two associates executed, in what would be the biggest shake-up since Kim came to power in December 2011 after the death of his father.

In a report carried on state media early Monday, the ruling Workers' Party confirmed that it had "eliminated Jang and purged his group, unable to remain an onlooker to its acts any longer", after a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee.

"The Jang Song-Thaek group... committed such anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts as gnawing at the unity and cohesion of the party," it said.

"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.

"Prompted by his politically-motivated ambition, he tried to increase his force and build his base... Jang and his followers committed criminal acts baffling imagination and they did tremendous harm to our party and revolution."

It's not the first, nor will it be the last, Photoshop fail from a powerful state.

Earlier this year, the Chinese government was forced to apologise after a major Photoshop gaffe.