Ri Je-gang (1930 – 2 June 2010) was 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 politician.

Career

Ri studied at Kim Il-sung University. He was elevated to the

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...

of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in 1973 as head of the

Organization and Guidance Department The Organization and Guidance Department (OGD) is a department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the ruling party of North Korea. Its central responsibility is to implement the directives and teachings of the ''Suryeon ...

(OGD);

Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim ...

's takeover of the bureau later that year set the stage for his friendship with Ri. He became a deputy chief of the same bureau as well as Kim's personal secretary in 1982; he was elevated to first deputy chief in 1999. He had a long rivalry with

Jang Sung-taek Jang Song-thaek (January or February 1946 – 12 December 2013) was a leading figure in the government of North Korea. He was married to Kim Kyong-hui, the only daughter of North Korean Premier Kim Il-sung and his first wife Kim Jong-suk, and o ...

. Ri reportedly directed many of the purges of senior government officials which took place during Kim Jong-il's reign. Ri reportedly imposed

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

on many of those purged, in spite of recommendations from his subordinates for lesser punishments such as reeducation.

Death

Ri died due to injuries sustained in a car crash; there were different theories about the cause, including speculation that it may have been foul play. In particular,

Andrei Lankov Andrei Nikolaevich Lankov (russian: Андрей Николаевич Ланьков; born 26 July 1963) is a Russian scholar of Asia and a specialist in Korean studies and Director of Korea Risk Group, the parent company of NK News and NK Pro ...

of Kookmin University called the death suspicious, pointing to the lack of traffic in North Korea, and described the death as "part of a long tradition" of politicians being killed in mysterious traffic incidents. In contrast, North Korea analyst Lee Sang-hyun of the

Sejong Institute Sejong Institute (Korean: 세종연구소, Hanja: 世宗硏究所) is a non-profit, independent organization for public interest and a leading think tank in South Korea, dedicated to developing strategies and policies in areas of foreign and s ...

suspected a more innocent explanation, that Ri may have been

driving under the influence of alcohol Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English) is the act of driving under the influence of alcohol. A small increase in the blood alcohol content increases the relative risk of a motor vehicle crash. In the United States, alcohol is invo ...

after returning from a party held by Kim Jong-il, and found himself unable to control his vehicle on poorly lit and poorly maintained roads.

References

1930 births 2010 deaths Road incident deaths in North Korea Workers' Party of Korea politicians {{NorthKorea-politician-stub