NORTH KOREA ENVOY EXECUTED.
Diplomats laid groundwork for February summit
North Korea has reportedly executed five foreign ministry officials, including its special envoy to Washington, over the collapse of the Trump-Kim summit in Vietnam in February.
Kim Hyok Chol, a former ambassador to Spain, and four other officials who laid the groundwork for the summit were charged with spying for the U.S. and executed at Mirim Airport, outside Pyongyang, in March, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported.
Kim Yong Chol, who had held several rounds of talks with Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State, in the run-up to the failed Hanoi summit was sentenced to forced labour and ideological re-education, it reported.
Two others were sent to political prison camps, including Shin Hye Young, Kim Jong Un’s interpreter during the talks, for “undermining” Kim’s authority with an error in translation.
Kim is said to have carried out a purge of officials to divert attention from international sanctions that have hit the impoverished economy, and to deflect blame for the summit’s failure. Before leaving for Vietnam, he had expressed confidence he would return victorious, with Donald Trump agreeing to lift sanctions. Kim’s anger may even have extended to his own sister. Kim Yo Jong has not been seen in public since the dictator’s delegation returned to Pyongyang. Her absence could mean she has been removed from the elite ruling committee. While she attended a meeting of the parliamentary assembly, her name was also not included on the list of alternate politburo members.
Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor specializing in the North Korean leadership at Tokyo’s Waseda University, said it may have been that ministry officials were too frightened to pass on Washington’s demands ahead of the talks, as they feared the ire of Kim.
As a consequence, the dictator went to the talks believing the sides were close to agreement but was caught off guard when the U.S. demanded he close all five of his known nuclear processing plants. Kim had offered to close one.
When it became clear agreement was impossible, the U.S. halted the summit. Since then, ties have again become confrontational and the North has fired a number of short-range missiles as a sign of its displeasure.