Thae Hyong-chol (, born 1953) is a politician and university professor of the

Democratic People's Republic of 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 Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...

. He was President of the and an alternate for the 8th Political Bureau (and 7th Politburo member). Since the 12th convocation of the Supreme People's Assembly he is serving as Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee. He previously served as President of

Kim Il-sung University Kim Il-sung University, founded on 1 October 1946, is the first university built in North Korea. It is located on a campus in Pyongyang, the nation's capital. Along with the main academic buildings, the campus contains 10 separate offices, 50 l ...

from 2013 to 2019, and was the Minister of Higher Education in the

Cabinet of North Korea The Cabinet of North Korea (''Naegak'') is, according to the Constitution of North Korea, the administrative and executive body and a general state-management organ in the Government of North Korea. The Cabinet's principal newspaper is ''Minju C ...

. He is the son of a North Korean general,

Thae Byong-ryol Thae Byong-ryol (; 1916-December 29, 1986), General of the Korean People ’s Army (April 1992). On October 1980 elected by the First Plenary Session of the 6th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea he was elected a member of the Centra ...

Biography

Born in 1953 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 ...

, he graduated from

. He started as a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences in 1977 and was head of the World Economic and South-South Cooperation Research Institute at the Academy of Social Sciences in October 1990 and served as vice president of the Institute of Social Sciences in March 1995. Since August 1997, he has been serving as president of the . “통일부 북한자료센터 주요 인물 정보”. 통일부 북한자료센터. 2013년 11월 16일에 확인함
/ref> In September 2010, he was elected a candidate for 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 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 ...

. On April 13, 2012, the 12th 5th session of the Supreme People's Assembly he was elected as the General Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly replacing Kang Chang-uk. In 2014 he was replaced by Hong Son-ok. In April 2013, he became the President of Kim Il-sung University and became the Minister of Higher Education, succeeding Song Ja-reeb. He was elected as the 10th convocation of the

Supreme People's Assembly The Supreme People's Assembly (SPA; ) is the unicameral legislature of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea. It consists of one deputy from each of the DPRK's 687 constituencies, elected to five-year ...

in September 1998 and the 11th convocation and Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly in September 2003.

References

Members of the Supreme People's Assembly Kim Il Sung University alumni Academic staff of Kim Il-sung University 1953 births Date of birth missing (living people) People from Pyongyang Living people Alternate members of the 8th Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea Members of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Members of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea {{NorthKorea-politician-stub