Kim Jong-Un Purged Top Diplomats After Failed Hanoi Summit: South Korean Media

Kim Yong-chol (left) and Kim Hyok-chol (right). Click to see full-size image

North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un “brutally purged” two officials after the failed Kim-Trump meeting in Hanoi in February, South Korean outlet Chosun Ilbo reported.

According to an anonymous source, North Korea’s top negotiator Kim Hyok-chol along with four other unnamed senior officials were shot at Mirim Airport in March on “charges of spying for America.”

Instead of being executed, “Kim Jong-un’s erstwhile right-hand man Kim Yong-chol was sent to a labor and reeducation camp.”

Kim Song-hye of the United Front Department was sent to a political prison camp. Kim Jong-un’s interpreter at the summit, Shin Hye-yong, was accused of “tarnishing the authority” of the leader for an interpreting error and is also believed to have been sent to a prison camp.

Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader’s younger sister was told to “lie low.”

“Kim Yo-jong has not been spotted in public since the Hanoi summit,” a South Korean government official who wasn’t named said.

This is not at all recent news, since on April 25^th, the South Korean outlet tried to alleged that only four North Korean officials were shot over the failed summit in Hanoi, but this time they were shot in Pyongyang.

It appears that the story didn’t get enough friction the first-time round.

The dismissal of Kim Yong-chol, too, was reported on April 25^th, but he wasn’t yet allegedly sent to a prison camp.

According to the outlet, which cited unnamed North Korean officials who defected, the alleged purge would impede negotiations between the North and South.

“The purges targeting high-ranking officials are likely to result in changes in the regime’s South Korea policy. There’ll be no significant inter-Korean dialogue until we see an outline of the changes.”

The report speculated that an intelligence source said on May 30 that the purge is probably the reason the North has been so quiet in talks with South Korea. It has severely thinned out the ranks of the departments tasked with negotiating with the U.S. and South Korea.

Regardless, the recent reports were perpetuated all across MSM. Reports of this sort likely contain little truth and are just war propaganda.

There are numerous examples of North Koreans who were allegedly executed turning up alive.

• This was the case even back in 2014, North Korean singer Hyon Song Wol who was rumored to have been executed with 11 other performers actually turned up alive and well. The report of her execution was initially made by the Chosun Ilbo outlet, too.
• In 2016, a former North Korean Military Chief, Ri Yong Gil, was also allegedly executed, but he turned up alive. South Korean media said that Seoul intelligence authorities were responsible for the initial reports on Ri’s execution. But the National Intelligence Service — South Korea’s main spy agency — tried to distance itself from the misstep, saying it never disclosed any information on Ri.

Most of these reports on executions originate in South Korean media, and they are little more than war propaganda. Whether their source is actually the South’s intelligence services or not is up to speculation.

North Korea is a closed state with a very weak English-language propaganda mechanism. And South Korea and the US perfectly take advantage of that to build up a fake image of the state, without it having a real chance of forming its own.