North Korean Diplomats Purged

Two senior North Korean diplomats who negotiated with the United States during the era of threats of war and summit talks between Kim Jong-un and President Donald J. Trump faced severe consequences a few years ago. One was executed, while the other was sentenced to a penal colony, as revealed by North Korean defector Ri Il-kyu.

There has been no independent verification of these claims, and it remains unclear whether these actions were a result of the failed diplomatic efforts. The breakdown of talks was widely viewed as a significant setback for Kim Jong-un.

Ri Il-kyu, aged 52, disclosed this information in an interview with a Seoul-based newspaper, which also marked the public revelation of his defection. Previously a political counselor at the North Korean Embassy in Cuba, Mr. Ri defected to South Korea in November last year, making him the highest-ranking North Korean official known to have defected to the South in nearly a decade.

During the interview with the conservative daily Chosun Ilbo conducted on Sunday and published on Tuesday, Mr. Ri discussed the fates of Ri Yong-ho, a former foreign minister, and Han Song-ryol, a deputy. Both diplomats were prominent figures in North Korean negotiations with Washington but vanished from state media coverage.

Ri Yong-ho, who had accompanied Kim Jong-un to the summit meetings with Donald Trump, was sent to a prison camp in December 2019 on charges of receiving bribes from a North Korean diplomat in Beijing, as per Mr. Ri’s account. His reported punishment marked him as the highest-ranking North Korean official to be “purged” following the breakdown of talks between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump.

On the other hand, Han Song-ryol was reportedly executed in February 2019 on charges of espionage for Washington, according to Mr. Ri. He stated that senior officials of the North Korean Foreign Ministry were present to witness Han’s execution by firing squad at a military academy in a suburb of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.