South Korean intelligence officials said that Mr. Choe had been sent to the countryside for re-education.
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Kim Yang Gon, a high-ranking North Korean official tasked with easing the fractious relationship with South Korea, has died in an automobile accident, the state-run KCNA news agency said.
“Kim Yang Gon was his faithful helper and close comrade-in-arms whom nobody can replace, he said”, it added.
The agency called him Kim Jong-un’s “closest comrade and a solid revolutionary partner”.
Kim Yang Gon, center, and Choe Ryong Hae, right, leave after a meeting with South Korean officials at a hotel in Incheon, South Korea.
Kim’s unexpected death has clouded prospects for an imminent improvement in inter-Korean ties. But Kim’s military, which traditionally favors a hard-line stance on South Korea, had reportedly tried to hold him in check.
North Korean spy chief Kim Yang Gon gets in a auto upon his arrival at the transit office near the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas in Paju, north of Seoul, in this file picture taken November 29, 2007.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the third-generation North Korean leader of the Kim family, has killed several senior officials, including family members, since becoming the country’s “supreme leader”.
“I worry that we can not avoid long suspension of a dialogue between South and North Korea” following Kim’s death, said Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea.
Yet a few events could bring about a turnaround in the mood, including an envisioned visit by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the communist state and one-on-one talks with leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea dictator Kim Yong-un has executed anyone who appeared to pose a threat to his power – including his uncle Jang Song Thaek in 2013.
High-level inter-Korean talks collapsed earlier this month, representing another test for Seoul and Pyongyang in a series of challenges since the Korean War reached a ceasefire in 1953.
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The South Korean government sent a letter expressing condolences, acknowledging that Kim played a key role during high-level inter-Korean talks in August. At the North’s first party congress in 36 years, slated for May, Kim is anticipated to unveil next-generation leaders and new economic, diplomatic and unification policies.
