North Korea executed its point-man on South Korea last year, holding him accountable for instituting ``wrong'' South Korean policies during previous liberal governments, Yonhap News Agency, and MBC, the nation's second largest broadcaster, reported Monday.
The news agency said that Choe Sung-chol, former vice chairman of the North's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, who disappeared from public sight early last year, was reportedly executed last year for his ``wrong judgments'' on Seoul.
The execution is widely seen as a sign that North Korea has moved toward a hard-line policy after South Korea seemingly halted a decade-long engagement policy toward Pyeongyang.
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Choe, also a deputy director of the Workers' Party inter-Korean department, came into the public spotlight in 2007, when he escorted Roh throughout his visit to Pyeongyang for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Choe is known to have played a key role in arranging the summit
Citing another informed source, MBC said the North Korean government held Choe accountable for the unwanted impact of its dependence on the capitalist South, which has grown with economic exchanges.
He initially represented the North Korean delegation to the Red Cross talks with the Kim Dae-jung administration, and then further expanded his role as the chief inter-Korean policymaker during the Roh era.
South Korea's Unification Ministry has yet to confirm the report. The Herald says that in spite of rumors that Choe was sent to work on a chicken farm
a number of sources privy to North Korean internal affairs told Yonhap News Agency that Choe was executed last year to shoulder the blame for inter-Korean relations, which changed drastically with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's inauguration.
Choe left office around the time Lee became president. The Joongang Ilbo has a little more about that.
Choe Sung-chol, deputy director of the United Front Department of the North Korean Workers’ Party, was in charge of Pyongyang’s South Korean affairs until early last year. After he lost the job, Yu, head of the Korean Buddhists Federation, was appointed to the post, the source said.
“Yu succeeded Choe in March last year,” the source said. “Choe was once deeply trusted by [North Korean] leader Kim Jong-il, but he stepped down because he had failed to accurately assess the outcome of the 2007 presidential election in the South, the Lee Myung-bak administration’s North Korea policy and the outlook for inter-Korean relations.”
The source also said corruption scandals involving the overseas North Korean assistance committee under the United Front Department played a role in Choe’s sacking.
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