Top North Korean official reappears days after purge report

US President Donald Trump, right, talks to Kim Yong Chol, former North Korean military intelligence chief and one of leader Kim Jong Un's closest aides, last June. Photo / AP file

Amid purge reports, Kim Yong Chol reappears alongside North Korean leader https://t.co/SMpn2MNPqU

— Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) June 2, 2019

A senior North Korean official who had been reported as purged over the failed nuclear summit with Washington was shown in state media enjoying a concert alongside leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korean publications today showed Kim Yong Chol sitting near a clapping Kim Jong Un and other top officials during a musical performance by the wives of Korean People's Army officers.

Kim Yong Chol had been North Korea's top nuclear negotiator and met US President Donald Trump at the White House while setting up Trump's two summits with Kim Jong Un.

South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo last week cited an unnamed source to report that Kim Yong Chol was sentenced to hard labour following the collapse of the second summit in February.

The newspaper's source said that senior envoy Kim Hyok Chol was executed at the Mirim airfield with four other officials from the North's Foreign Ministry for betraying Kim Jong Un after being won over by the US.

Kim Hyok Chol led working-level negotiations as North Korea's special representative for US affairs ahead of February's summit between the US and North Korean leaders in Hanoi, Vietnam.

South Korea's Government and media have a mixed record on tracking developments among North Korea's ruling elite, made difficult by Pyongyang's stringent control of information about them. Seoul's spy service has said it could not confirm the newspaper's report, while the presidential Blue House declined to comment.

-AP