By John Power
Two top officials rumored to have been executed have reappeared in elite North Korean politics.
Try to read the mysterious inner workings of North Korea’s leadership with much confidence, and you do so at your peril. That’s one lesson from the revelation that several apparently purged North Korean officials were included on a committee tasked with organizing the funeral of one of the military’s most senior leaders.
Han Kwang-sang and Kim Kyong-ok were among the most prominent of several supposedly purged officials named on the list of committee members, which was released by North Korean state media ahead of the funeral of Marshal Ri Ul-sol on Wednesday.
The committee list was widely seen as a rundown of the country’s top brass, and the inclusion of Han and Kim indicates that they remain alive and in favor with the regime.
In May, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told local lawmakers that Han was among 15 senior officials executed so far this year. The intelligence briefing came seven months after North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, a group of activist defectors, claimed that Kim had been ordered killed.
Read the full story at The Diplomat