SEOUL: North Korea’s nuclear envoy, Kim Hyok Chol, who led North Korea’s working-level talks in the run-up to the Hanoi summit, is alive. He is in state custody and is being investigated for his role in the failure to reach a nuclear deal between the U.S. and North Korea.
Further talk between North Korea and U.S. has been stalled since the Vietnam summit held in Hanoi on February 27–28, 2019. This was the second meeting between the North Korea and the United States following the first meeting in June 2018 in Singapore.
Earlier last week a South Korean newspaper said that last Kim Hyok Chol had been executed. Chun Yungwoo, South Korea’s former top envoy to international nuclear talks with North Korea said, ”I cannot imagine that Kim Hyok Chol misinterpreted the U.S. position and misled his bosses into believing that sanctions relief is possible. He is not senior enough to make such a judgment.”
Kim Yong Chol was seen in a photo on Monday accompanying Kim Jong Un to an art performance proving that the former spy master remains a force in the secretive North’s power structure. (Agencies)
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