US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their second summit meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel on February 27. Photo / Getty Images
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their second summit meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel on February 27. Photo / Getty Images
North Korea executed its former top nuclear envoy with the US along with four other foreign ministry officials in March after a failed summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump in Vietnam, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported.
Kim Hyok Chol, who led working-level negotiations for the February summit in Hanoi, was executed by firing squad after being charged with espionage for allegedly being co-opted by the US, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified source. The move was part of an internal purge Kim undertook after the summit broke down without any deal, it said.
Speculation has swirled for months about the fate of Kim Hyok Chol, who hasn't received any mentions in state media reports. Previous reports in South Korea media about senior North Korean officials being executed have proven false.
Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un take a walk after their first meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel in Hanoi. Photo / AP
The North Korean leader is believed to be carrying out a massive purge to divert attention away from internal turmoil and discontent.
"Kim Hyok Chol was investigated and executed at Mirim Airport with four foreign ministry officials in March," an unnamed North Korea source reportedly said, adding they were charged with spying for the US.
Kim Hyok Chol had been negotiations counterpart to US special representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun before the summit.
Kim Yong Chol was forced to work in Jagang Province after his dismissal, the source said, adding that Kim Song Hye, who carried out working-level negotiations with Kim Hyok Chol, was sent to a political prison camp.
Shin Hye Yong, the interpreter for Kim Jong-un at the Hanoi meeting, is also said to have been detained in a political prison camp.
Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong-un's sister who aided him in Hanoi, is also said to be lying low, the paper reported, citing an unnamed South Korean government official who said: "We are not aware of Kim Yo Jong's track record since the Hanoi meeting ... We understand that Kim Jong-un has made her lie low."
The US-North Korea summit in February was widely criticised as a disaster — with President Trump walking away empty-handed.
The high-stakes second meeting between the pair to strike a disarmament deal broke up in disarray in Hanoi, without even a joint statement being issued at the end.
However, US national security adviser John Bolton denied it was a disaster.
The White House aide said the issue was whether North Korea would accept what the president called "the big deal" — denuclearising completely — or something less, "which was unacceptable to us."
Trump, right, meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo / AP
"So the president held firm to his view. He deepened his relationship with Kim Jong-un. I don't view it as a failure at all when American national interests are protected," Mr Bolton added.
The outcome in Hanoi fell far short of expectations, after critics said the two leaders' initial historic meeting in Singapore — which produced only a vague commitment from Kim to work "toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula" — had yielded more style than substance.
According to senior US officials, in the week leading up to the Hanoi summit the North Koreans had demanded the lifting of effectively all UN Security Council economic sanctions imposed on Pyongyang since March 2016.
In return, Pyongyang was only offering to close a portion of the Yongbyon complex, a sprawling site covering multiple facilities — and the North is believed to have other uranium enrichment plants.
"Sometimes you have to walk and this was just one of those times," an unusually downcast Mr Trump told reporters after it had concluded, adding that he would "rather do it right than do it fast."
