Kim Hyok-chol ( Korean: 김혁철, born 1971) is a

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

n diplomat. Kim is the first ambassador in Spain, however, he was expelled in 2017.

Early life and education

Kim was born in

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

and studied French at the

Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies The Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies is a five-year university in Pyongyang, North Korea, specializing in language education. History The university was split off from Kim Il-sung University in 1964. North Korea's state-run Korean Cent ...

Career

From 2000 until 2012 Kim was the DPRK ambassador for Ethiopia in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

and, since 2011, also for South Sudan in Juba. On October 1, 2013, Kim became the first DPRK ambassador in Spain when his country opened its new embassy in Madrid. In September 2017 he was expelled as a ''

persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution. Diplomacy Under Article 9 of the ...

'' after a North Korean nuclear weapon's test on September 3, 2017. The Madrid embassy was later raided by members of

Free Joseon Free Joseon (; formerly known as Cheollima Civil Defense, formally styled as The Provisional Government of Free Joseon) is a North Korean activist group and self-proclaimed "government in exile" established on 4 March 2017. It has been noted for ...

on February 22, 2019, just prior to the

2019 North Korea–United States Hanoi Summit The 2019 North Korea–United States Hanoi Summit, commonly known as the Hanoi Summit, was a two-day summit meeting between North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. president Donald Trump, held at the French Colonial Hôtel Métropol ...

. Replacing

Choe Son-hui Choe Son-hui (; born 10 August 1964) is the Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Korea. Previously the First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, she was appointed Minister on 11 June 2022, becoming the first woman to hold the position and is one ...

, the Vice Foreign Minister, Kim became the chief nuclear negotiator of the DPRK in February 2019. As the counterpart to

Stephen E. Biegun Stephen Edward Biegun (born March 30, 1963) is an American businessman and diplomat who served as the United States Deputy Secretary of State, United States deputy secretary of state from December 2019 to January 2021 and United States Special Rep ...

, the American envoy, Kim participated in the Hanoi Summit on February 27 and 28 that was abruptly terminated. In May 2019 the South Korean newspaper ''

The Chosun Ilbo ''The Chosun Ilbo'' (, ) is a daily newspaper in South Korea and the oldest daily newspaper in the country. With a daily circulation of more than 1,800,000, the ''Chosun Ilbo'' has been audited annually since the Audit Bureau of Circulations w ...

'' claimed that, in the aftermath of the failed Hanoi summit, Kim Hyok-chol and another four officials had been executed at

Mirim Airport Mirim Airport, also known as Pyongyang East Airfield or K-24 Air Base, is an airport in Mirim-dong, Sadong-guyok, Pyongyang-si, North Korea. Facilities The airfield has a single concrete runway 09/27 measuring 4310 x 69 feet (1314 x 21 m).

, Sadong-guyok, Pyongyang in March 2019. It was also indicated that some other participants, among them

Kim Yong-chol Kim Yong-chol (; born 1946) is a North Korean general and politician who currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea for South Korean affairs and head of the United Front Department. From February ...

, were sent to reeducation camps. The report remained unconfirmed and unsupported by other sources. In early June, state media of the DPRK published a photo of Kim Yong-chol at a public event with

Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's sec ...

and

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

indicated, based on multiple sources, that Kim Hyok-chol was alive and in custody.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Hyok-chol North Korean diplomats Ambassadors of North Korea to Spain 21st-century North Korean people People from Pyongyang 1971 births Possibly living people