A hint of the next? Kim replaced his foreign minister with an army man

Ri Son Gwen, a senior military officer and senior member of the party, replaces Ri Jung Ho, a long-time diplomat with long experience of negotiating with the United States. This is while nuclear talks with Washington are stuck.

A hint of the next? Kim replaced his foreign minister with an army man

The North Korean leader has replaced his foreign minister with a military man, with little diplomatic experience, in what experts describe as relying on his party and military loyalists during this sensitive period.

A Seoul diplomat told Reuters North Korea last week updated their countries that there were embassies in Pyongyang that Ri Sun Gwen, a senior military officer and a ruling member of the ruling Workers Party, was taking on. He replaces Ri Jung Ho, a long-time diplomat with years of experience negotiating with the United States. However, over the past two years he has been pushed back many times in favor of other regime officials.

Commentators say it is premature to assess the implications of the appointment on the nuclear talks, but they say that Rie Son Gwen has sometimes played a belligerent role in talks with South Korea. Unlike his predecessor, he has no experience in dealing with nuclear issues or with US representatives, but he has led high-level talks with North Korea's neighbors.

Rey, who chairs the South Korea Relations Relations Committee, is the latest in a series of senior military leaders promoted by the party leadership. "There are clear dynamics where military leaders are moving to the party leadership," said Michael Madden, a North Korean expert from the American Stimson Research Institute.

Missing diplomatic experience. Ri Son Gwen (Photo: Reuters)

Rye Sun Gwen, North Korea's Foreign Minister, Visits Peace Village on the Border with the South, January 9, 2018 (Photo: Reuters)

While the young leader has overseen several short-range ballistic missile launches in the past year, the number of military industry personnel and weapons seen alongside him in the public has grown significantly.

Ri has remained largely out of the public eye since talks with South Korea came to a head last year. However, in April he was appointed a Member of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee and was last seen at the party's Central Committee, which sets its policy, last month. Rey, considered a tough hawk negotiator, "stormed out of the room" during military talks with South Korea in 2014, when Seoul demanded an apology for what she called military provocations of the North, according to a former Seoul official intended with him.

He was also known today as Kim Jung Chul, another former military official who preceded the party's leadership before conducting nuclear talks with the United States. After the failed Hanoi summit with US President Donald Trump, Kim Yung Chul dissipated from the public eye as Kim Jong Un promoted diplomats involved in relations with the United States, including Rio Yong Ho's deputy Chu Sun Hui.

However, Kim Jung Chul seems to have retained his behind-the-scenes power, while Ri Jung Ho's role has gradually diminished, after professional talks with the United States collapsed in October, and Washington ignored the ultimatum that La Pyongyang set to resume talks by the end of the year.

Ri Jung Hu's absence from the group photo of party leaders at a conference last month sparked rumors about his future. "Ri Jung Ho is the senior who was in fact pushed aside after the convention in Hanoi, and was ousted from office after it appeared that his foreign ministry officials had achieved nothing," Madden said.

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