North Korean official Kim Yong-chol, who was thought to have been sent to labour camp, appears at show, local media claims
- The North’s counterpart to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was sent to a labour camp following the collapse of the Kim-Trump summit in Hanoi in February
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A senior North Korean official reportedly purged after talks collapsed between leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump appeared at an arts performance with the country’s top brass, official media reported Monday.
Kim Yong-chol, the North’s counterpart to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in nuclear talks, was sent to a labour camp following the collapse of the Kim-Trump summit in Hanoi in February, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper had reported Friday.
But late Sunday Kim Yong-chol was among the country’s top leaders – including Kim Jong-un, his wife Ri Sol Ju, senior members of the ruling party and top military officers – at a “performance given by amateur art groups of the wives” of military officers, North Korea’s official news wire KCNA said.
A picture carried by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed the official sitting five seats down from Kim Jong-un, with both his hands covering his face.
South Korea’s parliamentary intelligence committee in April said Kim Yong-chol had been censured over his handling of the Hanoi summit, despite the fact he had recently been named a member of the State Affairs Commission, a supreme governing body chaired by Kim Jong-un.
But Kim Yong-chol’s name was included among those named by KCNA as attending the Sunday event.
Absent from the list, however, was Kim Hyok-chol, North Korea’s special envoy to the United States who – according to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper – was executed by firing squad for “betraying the supreme leader” after he was “won over to the US” during pre-summit negotiations.
Kim Hyok-chol was the North’s counterpart of US special representative Stephen Biegun in the run-up to the Hanoi summit.
Some previous South Korean reports of North Korean purges and executions have later proved inaccurate.
