‘Purged’ North Korean official turns up at event with Kim Jong Un

There were reports he had been sentenced to hard labor and ideological re-education over the failed summit in Hanoi in February. 

A senior North Korean official thought to have been ‘purged’ appeared at a state event on Monday.

Kim Yong Chol was pictured sitting five seats away from Kim Jong Un during a musical performance by the wives of army officers.

South Korean media had reported last week he had been sentenced to hard labor and ideological re-education over the failed summit in Hanoi in February.

The nuclear summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un was cut short without an agreement being reached. North Korea had pushed for a total lifting of sanctions in return for only partially stopping its nuclear programme.

Kim Yong Chol has been North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator since Kim Jong Un entered nuclear talks with the US early last year. He traveled to Washington and met President Donald Trump twice before Kim’s two summits with Trump.

Chosun Ilbo, the newspaper which first reported the ‘purge’, also said that senior envoy Kim Hyok Chol, who was involved in pre-summit working-level talks with American officials, was executed with four other officials from the North’s Foreign Ministry for betraying Kim Jong Un after being won over by the United States.

South Korea’s government and media have a mixed record on tracking developments among North Korea’s ruling elite, made difficult by Pyongyang’s stringent control of information about them.

Seoul’s spy service has said it could not confirm the newspaper’s report, while the presidential Blue House declined to comment.