North Korea’s former lead on inter-Korean affairs now chief of country’s rubber-stamp political party

This image from Yonhap News TV shows Ri Son-gwon, North Korea’s former point man on relations with South Korea, who is now the chairman of the Korean Social Democratic Party. [YONHAP]

 

Ri Son-gwon, North Korea’s former point person on relations with South Korea, has assumed chairmanship at a rubber-stamp political party.

 

Ri, former director of North Korea’s now-abolished United Front Department (UFD), was identified as the chairman of the Korean Social Democratic Party’s central committee in a report Sunday by the Korean Central Broadcasting Station on key officials voting in parliamentary elections.

 


The Korean Social Democratic Party is one of two nominal political parties recognized in North Korea, apparently to project the appearance of a multiparty system. Ri’s party is in effect closely allied with the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.

 

Prior to his current post, Ri headed the ruling party’s Bureau 10, a downgraded body tasked with affairs involving overseas North Koreans following the abolition of the UFD, which handled inter-Korean relations.

 

The Korean Social Democratic Party has often handled inter-Korean relations by participating in exchanges with South Korean political parties or religious groups.

Yonhap