Kim Pyong Il, half-brother of the country’s late leader Kim Jong Il, has returned to Prague ahead of his upcoming replacement as North Korean ambassador to the Czech Republic, two informed sources said this week.

NK News reported earlier in the month that the 65-year-old Kim — who has served as Pyongyang’s top diplomat in Prague since his appointment in 2015 — had returned home to North Korea in late May or June for reasons unknown.

Sources have now confirmed that ambassador Kim’s four-year tenure as ambassador to the Czech Republic will now soon come to an end, and that he was