Ri Man-gon (born 1945) is

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 who served as Director 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 ''Suryeo ...

and Vice Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea from 2019 to 2020. He was formerly a member of the

Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea In North Korea, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), or simply the Politburo, formerly the Political Committee (1946–61), is the highest decision-making body in the ruling party between sessions ...

and director of munitions and military. He was a "supervisor of the department for the nuclear and missile development".

Career

Ri served as a deputy director of the Organization and Guidance Department from 2007 to 2010, when he was appointed chief secretary of the

North Pyongan North Pyongan Province (Phyŏnganbukto; , also spelled North P'yŏngan), is a western province of North Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former P'yŏng'an Province, remained a province of Korea until 1945, th ...

Provincial Committee of the

Workers' Party of Korea The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is the founding and sole ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. Founded in 1949 from the merger of the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of ...

and gained a seat in the party's

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 ...

. He was transferred to

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 ...

in 2015 and promoted to party vice-chairman, Politburo member and director of the Munitions Department at the 7th Congress in May 2016. This concurred with his promotion to the newly created

State Affairs Commission The State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (SAC) is defined by the 2016 constitution as "the supreme policy-oriented leadership body of State power." The current president of the SAC, which is defined by the same ...

, and he was also included in the Central Military Commission. He returned to the OGD in October 2017 as its first deputy director, before moving up as department director on 9 April 2019. He was not present at an October 7, 2017 mass rally in Pyongyang and an October 11, 2017 celebration for the anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea. According to a South Korean think tank, "There's little chance that Ri and Kim have been dismissed or purged because they've been praised for major achievements recently." and "It's highly likely that they were absent because they'd been given an important assignment." On 28 February 2020 the Politburo resolved to remove Ri as party vice-chairman, and OGD director, following a publicized corruption scandal that involved units under the OGD. On June 17, 2020, it was revealed that Ri Man-gon was in charge of the

Pyongyang General Hospital The Pyongyang General Hospital ( ko, 평양종합병원) is a hospital under construction in Pyongyang, North Korea. The hospital is located in front of Monument to Party Founding. Its groundbreaking took place on 19 March 2020, during the COVID-19 ...

project and was the project's head person in charge. He was given the post despite the corruption investigation that occurred at the OGD which showed that he still held the trust of

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 ...

as he was given an important assignment. He appeared among retired officials during celebrations for the party's 75th founding anniversary.

References

, - Living people North Korean politicians People from South Pyongan 21st-century North Korean people 1945 births Vice Chairmen of the Workers' Party of Korea and its predecessors North Korean individuals subject to the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions {{NorthKorea-politician-stub