N. Korea's Ri Son-gwon demoted from alternate member of party political bureau: Seoul

▲ This Feb. 9, 2023, file photo taken from footage from North Korea's Korean Central Television shows Ri Son-gwon (6th from R, front row), chief of the United Front Department, attending a military parade the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution)

N Korea-personnel reshuffle

N. Korea's Ri Son-gwon demoted from alternate member of party political bureau: Seoul

SEOUL, Dec. 21 (Yonhap) -- Ri Son-gwon, head of the North Korean unit handling inter-Korean relations, has been removed from his position as an alternate member of the political bureau of the ruling Workers' Party, South Korea's unification ministry said Thursday.

The assessment came as Seoul has been keeping tabs on a possible change in Ri's status within the party after he was identified in a separate location from members of the powerful group at key events.

Ri is the chief of the North's United Front Department (UFD) in charge of relations with South Korea.

"There is typically one seat for an UFD official as an alternate member of the party political bureau," a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

"But we assumed that Ri Son-gwon has not been included as UFD adviser Kim Yong-chol has become an alternate member of the political bureau," the official said, raising views that the UFD's status may have weakened amid chilled inter-Korean relations.

Following a yearlong absence from key party posts, Kim, a former UFD chief known for his hard-line stance on South Korea, was elected as an alternate member of the party's political bureau in a reshuffle in June.

The ministry, meanwhile, said Kim Yong-hwan, a missile expert, appears to have been appointed to lead the North's Academy of Defense Science, which is tasked with the research and development of advanced weapons.

Kim is among the 11 North Korean individuals involved in satellite and ballistic missile development whom South Korea imposed unilateral sanctions on earlier this month.

Kim had been identified as the head of the 727 Research Institute, which is known to be part of the defense science institution.

The ministry updated the changes in the latest version of its who's who book on key officials in North Korea.

The book details changes in major organs and information of key officials in North Korea based on its state media reports from October last year and this year.

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