Pyongyang has appointed veteran diplomat Choe Son-hui as North Korea’s first female minister of foreign affairs, state media reported yesterday, as the country pushes ahead with a blitz of sanctions-busting weapons tests and ignores US calls for talks.
Choe, who formerly served as the country’s vice minister of foreign affairs, was tapped to lead the ministry at a meeting of the ruling party overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the Korean Central News Agency reported.
She replaces Ri Son-gwon, a former military official who previously led talks with South Korea.
Photo: AFP
A career diplomat who speaks fluent English, Choe served as a close aide to Kim during nuclear talks with the US and accompanied him to summits with then-US president Donald Trump.
She held a rare question-and-answer session with reporters on the night the two leaders’ summit in Hanoi collapsed without a deal in February 2019, blaming Washington for the failed talks.
“I think the United States has missed a golden opportunity with its rejection of our proposals,” she said.
Diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington has since stalled, with the Kim regime in the past few months not responding to the US’ repeated offers to return to negotiations.
South Korean and US defense officials yesterday condemned North Korea’s preparations for a nuclear test, saying this and a series of missile launches threaten the peace and safety of the Korean Peninsula and the international community.
South Korea and the US plan to expand the scale of joint military exercises to maintain deterrence, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said in a statement.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and South Korean Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup met yesterday at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an Asia-focused security gathering in Singapore.
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