Ri Yong-gil (, born 1955) 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 Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

n military officer and the current Minister of Social Security. He is believed to have been in his 60s when appointed to his position as a general in 2013. Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin (2019-04-25) 15

Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin (2019-04-25) 15

Ri was made a

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

in April 2002 and given command of the forward-deployed 3rd Army Corps from 2002 to 2007, and later the 5th Army Corps from 2007 to 2012.Alt URL
/ref> He was promoted to Colonel General (Sangjang) and elected an alternate member of the Central 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 ...

in 2010. He was promoted to chief of the General Staff Operations Bureau in late 2012, in charge of coordinating KPA corps commanders and reporting to the chief of General Staff and the Supreme Command. Ri was appointed

Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff. List * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( United States) * Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia) * Chief of General Staff (Af ...

of the

Korean People's Army The Korean People's Army (KPA; ) is the military force of North Korea and the armed wing of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). Under the '' Songun'' policy, it is the central institution of North Korean society. Currently, WPK General S ...

in August 2013 as well as promoted to general around the same time. In early February 2016, the South Korean news agency

Yonhap Yonhap News Agency is a major South Korean news agency. It is based in Seoul, South Korea. Yonhap provides news articles, pictures and other information to newspapers, TV networks and other media in South Korea. History Yonhap (, , translit. ...

reported that Ri had recently been executed on charges of corruption and forming a political faction. The unconfirmed rumour was widely circulated in mass media, but it was announced during the May 2016 Party Congress that Ri had been appointed a member of the Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers’ Party, as well as its Central Military Commission. General Ri was named an alternate member of the Politburo. As of April 2017, state media identified Ri as first deputy chief of the General Staff and director of the General Operations Bureau of the Korean People's Army. At 27 July 2018 KCNA reported that the general was again promoted to 4 star general and again Chief of the General Staff of Korean People Army, until 2019. After that he served as a party department director. He was reelected to the Politburo following the 8th Party Congress in January 2021 as the new minister of Social Security. He was later moved to minister of Defense, joining also the

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 ...

in September of the same year. On 22 March 2021, the

Council of the European Union The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as ...

imposed a set of restrictive measures against Ri giving the reason for listing: "As Head of the Ministry of Social Security, Ri Yong Gil is responsible for serious human rights violations in the DPRK, in particular torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings, enforced disappearance of persons, and arbitrary arrests or detentions, as well as widespread forced labour and sexual violence against women." On 14 April 2022, he was promoted to Vice-Marshal of the KPA by the

Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea The Central Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (CMC) () is an organ of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) which is responsible for coordinating the Party organizations within the ...

References

, - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ri, Yong-gil 1955 births Date of birth unknown Living people North Korean generals Members of the 8th Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea Members of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea