N. Korea's new top envoy lacks diplomatic experience

SEOUL • North Korea's new foreign minister is a former defence commander with little diplomatic experience, spotlighting leader Kim Jong Un's reliance on party and military loyalists at a sensitive time amid stalled talks with the US, analysts in Seoul said yesterday.

Last week, North Korea told countries with embassies in Pyongyang that Mr Ri Son Gwon, a senior military officer and official of the ruling Workers' Party, had been appointed foreign minister, a diplomatic source in Seoul told Reuters.

He replaces Mr Ri Yong Ho, a career diplomat with years of experience negotiating with Washington, but who often took a backseat to other officials during the last two years of diplomacy.

Analysts said it was too soon to tell what impact the appointment may have for the stalled denuclearisation talks with the US, but added that Mr Ri Son Gwon had often played a confrontational role in negotiations with South Korea.

Unlike his predecessor, Mr Ri Son Gwon has no experience in dealing with nuclear issues or US officials, though he has led high-level talks between the neighbours.

Previously chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, which handles relations with South Korea, he is the latest military official to be promoted to the party leadership.

"There has been a demonstrative crossover dynamic in which senior military officials migrate into the party leadership," said Mr Michael Madden, North Korea leadership expert at the US think-tank Stimson Centre.

As the leader oversaw a number of short-range ballistic missile launches in the past year, the number of military and arms industry officials appearing in public with Mr Kim has increased sharply.

Mr Ri Son Gwon had largely stayed out of the public eye since talks with South Korea stalled last year. But in April, he was named to the foreign affairs panel of the Supreme People's Assembly, the country's Parliament, and was seen at a party's policymaking central committee meeting last month.

A tough, hawkish negotiator, Mr Ri Son Gwon had "stormed out of the room" during military talks with South Korea in 2014 when Seoul demanded an apology for what it saw as the North's past military provocations.

He was also known as a right-hand man of Mr Kim Yong Chol, another former military leader who took up a top party post before steering nuclear talks with the US.

After the failed Hanoi summit with US President Donald Trump last year, Mr Kim Yong Chol faded from public view as Mr Kim Jong Un elevated diplomats versed in US relations, including Mr Ri Yong Ho's deputy, Ms Choe Son Hui.

As Mr Ri Son Gwon becomes foreign minister, Ms Choe is expected to retain an influential post, thanks in part to her family background and personal rapport with an inner circle of women close to Mr Kim Jong Un, including his sister and wife, diplomatic sources say.

"What's most important is what Kim Jong Un thinks, and he needs someone he can trust to speak for him, whether it be Ri Son Gwon or Choe Son Hui," said former South Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Hong-kyun.

REUTERS