March 19, 2024
Analysis

Has Another Senior North Korean Figure Gone Missing?

Just a week after Kim Jong Uns wife disappeared from public view, has North Korea's Minister of Public Security Ri Myong Su also gone missing?

Just a week after NK News reported on the public disappearance of Kim Jong Un's wife, the South Korean press is reporting on the seeming departure of Ri Myong Su (pictured left), North Korea's Minister of Public Security and a member of the Politburo.  As a powerful ally of the late Kim Jong Il, the disappearance of Ri starting to raise eyebrows in South Korea as possible evidence of another purge.

Yonhap reports (link in Korean) that Ri hasn’t been seen since the 6th meeting of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly, though he was not publicly identified, and has not been mentioned in an article since appearing with Kim Jong Un on August 25th. Meanwhile, a subordinate, Ri Pyong Sam, the Director of the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces Political Bureau, as well as an alternate member of the Politburo, accompanied Kim on October 14th, and was also present when the People’s Security University was renamed Kim Jong Il People’s Security University on October 6th.

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