Seoul – Dictator Kim Jong Un is suspected of killing former North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho, who led strategic missions including the nuclear summit. While South Korea says it has evidence Ho was removed from power, some media in Japan are reporting that he and some high-ranking officials working at the Korean embassy in Britain were executed last year.
Ho has not been seen in public since the collapse of denuclearization talks between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in Vietnam in 2019. The last time his name appeared in official media was in 2020, when he removed by the State Affairs Commission chaired by Kim.
I accompanied Kim to summits in Singapore in 2018 and in Hanoi in Vietnam in 2019. The South Korean spy agency also claims that Pak Jong-chon, second only to Kim in the North Korean military, has been fired.
Follow-up of executions
Reports of executions ordered by Kim Jong Un have surfaced earlier. In 2014 my uncle’s entire family was killed. Kim also killed the deputy prime minister and defense minister.
South Korean media reported that Kim Yong Chol, a confidant who conducted talks with the US Secretary of State ahead of the Hanoi summit in 2019, was jailed and some other officials were killed. However, a photo of Chol attending a concert with Kim has appeared in the North Korean press.
English summary: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un purges former Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho
