Mick Hartley

North Korean Vice-Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol was one of the leading figures in recent dealings with the Trump administration. He was appointed head of the North American affairs department at Pyongyang's foreign ministry in 2015, after spending time at the UN in New York.

Well, seems like he's been purged:

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol, an old hand in U.S.-North Korean diplomacy, has been sacked and sent to a reeducation camp. Han's name has been scrapped from a list of the top seven Foreign Ministry officials in the "2019 Who's Who in North Korea" published by the Unification Ministry.

A government source said, "We received information from an agency in the second half of last year that there were significant changes in Han Song-ryol's status and reflected the developments."

Another source said Han and five other director-level officials had been sent for reeducation to the Komdok mine in South Hamgyong Province. "It seems a proposal for U.S.-North Korea talks he submitted to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was criticized for breaching doctrine," the source added.

Those sent away for reeducation perform hard labor in mines, plantations and poultry farms. One defector who used to be a senior official said, "Being sent to the Komdok mine is the harshest of reeducation sentences and means he just escaped being sent to a concentration camp."

The defector added most who serve there return with serious physical impairments.

A government source said, "The sacking of Han Song-ryol is related to his long-term service in the North dealing with the U.S. He was probably labeled a spy due to his years serving as the U.S.' main contact point in the North."

No cushy House of Lords number for old out-of-favour politicians in Pyongyang…

It could be a matter of internal power politics. Or it could be, as suggested, that he was considered tainted by his US association. This at a time when North Koreans are being lectured about the colonisation of South Korea by the Americans:

Lecture materials handed out to Workers’ Party of Korea (WKP) directors last month claim South Korea is facing a loss of national identity due to “colonization” by the US.

“The bourgeois lifestyle spread by the imperialists is killing the national identity of the country and its people,” the lecture materials recently obtained by Daily NK claim. “This lifestyle is like poison, spreading like a plague through society.”

“The imperialists use propaganda tools like newspapers, magazines, radio and television to spread all kinds of reactionary ideology and false beliefs, which paralyze the healthy minds of people,” it continues. “There are many movies, songs, dances and novels that are erotic, crude and grotesque in nature, along with various kinds of cultural artwork that teaches people to do whatever it takes to fulfill one’s desires.”

It doesn't look too propitious for the forthcoming US-North Korea summit. But then, it never did.