I found the report of Kim Yong-chol being purged hard to believe considering he is the Butcher of the Cheonan which has been one of North Korea’s most successful operations in recent years:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watched an art troupe’s performance, along with his top aides, including Kim Yong-chol, who was rumored to have been purged after the no-deal summit in Hanoi, Pyongyang’s media reported Monday.
Korea Times
The leader attended the show “given by amateur art groups of the wives of officers of units of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) selected in the seventh round of the second-term contest of art groups of KPA officers’ wives,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
He appeared with his wife Ri Sol-ju and other top officials, including Kim Yong-chol, the North’s counterpart to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in denuclearization negotiations with the U.S., the KCNA revealed.
Rumors have circulated that Kim Yong-chol might have been punished in the leader’s move to purge officials responsible for the no-deal summit with President Trump after the Chosun Ilbo, a major conservative newspaper, reported that Kim Yong-chol was punished with hard labor and another negotiator Kim Hyok-chol, a former North Korean envoy to the U.S. was executed citing anonymous sources last week.
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