Kim Hyok-chol

Korean spelling
Chosŏn'gŭl	김혁철
Revised Romanization	Gim Hyeok-cheol
McCune- Reischauer	Kim Hyŏkch'ŏl
See also : Korean name

Kim Hyok-chol (* 1971 in Pyongyang ) is a North Korean diplomat .

He studied Francophonie at Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies .

Career

From 2000 to 2012 he was ambassador to Addis Ababa and from 2011 also accredited to Juba .

In 2006 the governments in Madrid and Pyongyang established diplomatic relations through an exchange of notes between the Spanish embassy in Seoul and the North Korean embassy in Paris , and in October 2013 the North Korean embassy in Madrid opened. Kym Hyok Chol chose the Aravaca district in central Madrid as the location for the embassy .

On October 1st, 2013 he was accredited as ambassador to Madrid. After the nuclear weapons test in North Korea on September 3, 2017 , he was declared a persona non grata and was given until September 30, 2017 to leave Spain .

On February 1, 2019, he replaced Deputy Secretary of State Choe Son-hui as DPRK negotiator on nuclear issues with the United States. On February 27 and 28, 2019, Kim Young-chul was Kim Jong-un's right-hand man at the summit in Hanoi. On February 22, 2019, the North Korean embassy in Madrid was attacked and the embassy staff was mistreated.

In May 2019, the South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo reported that Kim Hyok Chol, one of five employees of the Korean Foreign Ministry, had already been executed in March for the failure of the summit at Mirim Airport in Sadong-guyŏk , a district of Pyongyang . According to the report, he was accused of espionage in favor of the USA. Prior to his alleged execution, he was reportedly taken to a prison camp for political prisoners in Chagang-do Province for forced labor . However, the report of Kim Hyok Chol's execution has been questioned after South Korea's intelligence agencies failed to confirm it and other sources told CNN that the execution had not yet taken place.

Individual evidence

1. ^ DPRK Establishes Relations with South Sudan, [1]
2. ^ José María Irujo: El mensajero de Corea del Norte. In: El País. February 28, 2014, Retrieved June 8, 2019 (Spanish). 
3. ^ Henry Holloway: North Korean ambassador EXPELLED as nuclear threat from Kim looms. In: Daily Star. September 18, 2017, accessed June 8, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Kim Hyok Chol, a former ambassador to Spain, Ethiopia, Sudan and other countries, YOSHIHIRO MAKINO, Sources: North Korea replaces key negotiator with US, February 1, 2019, [2]
5. ^ Leadership and Economy of North Korea, Research and Analysis on North Korea [3] ,
6. ↑ Der Spiegel , March 14, 2019, [4] Die Tageszeitung , [5] BBC , 북한: 스페인 언론 '북한 대사관 침입 사건 배후 는 미국 CIA' [6] Hyok Chol Kim; [7]
7. ^ ^{A b} Justin McCurry: North Korea 'executes envoy to US' after Trump summit failures - report. In: The Guardian. May 31, 2019, accessed May 31, 2019 (UK English). 
8. ↑ Ben Feuerherd: Kim Jong Un executed officials after failed February summit with US: report. In: New York Post. May 31, 2019, accessed May 31, 2019 (American English). 
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Joyce Lee: North Korea's Kim Jong Un carrying out purge after Hanoi summit collapse: Chosun Ilbo. In: Reuters. May 31, 2019, accessed May 31, 2019 . 
10. ↑ Will Ripley: 'Executed' North Korean diplomat is alive, sources say. In: CNN. June 4, 2019, Retrieved June 4, 2019 (American English). 
11. ↑ Judith Kormann: Top diplomat from North Korea believed to be in a labor camp seen at a concert. In: NZZ. June 3, 2019, accessed June 4, 2019 . 

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Kim is the family name here, Hyok-chol is the first name.