'Biegun's new NK counterpart competent strategist'

Thae Yong-ho / Korea Times file

By Kim Bo-eun

North Korea's new working-level nuclear negotiator Kim Hyok-chol is a “competent strategist,” according to high-level North Korean defector Thae Yong-ho.

Kim Hyok-chol, who accompanied North Korea's top official Kim Yong-chol at the high-level meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington earlier this month, is set to replace Choe Son-hui, who had led working-level denuclearization talks with U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun.

In a post on his website thaeyongho.com, Thae, who claimed he worked with Kim for many years at the North's foreign ministry, said the North's Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho and First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan “cultivated” Kim, who served previously as North Korea's ambassador to Spain.

The blog post said Kim was born into a family of high-level diplomats, majored in French at Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies and began working at the foreign ministry in the early 2000s, where he was placed in the division for drawing up foreign policy.

Kim Hyok-chol was a speech writer for Kim Kye-gwan when the latter was the North's chief envoy for the six-party talks back in 2005, the post said.

It said Kim Hyok-chol became the first to be promoted to vice director general level in his 30s in 2009, based on his contributions to the six party talks and dealing with the North's first nuclear test in 2006. He was promoted again to a vice minister-level position in 2012, which was also the first for a diplomat in his 30s.

Kim was appointed to serve as the first North Korean ambassador in Spain in late 2014.

Kim returned to Pyongyang after Spain expelled him in 2017 due to North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations at that time.

“The fact that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Kim Hyok-chol to the U.S. with Kim Yong-chol shows he placed that much importance on Kim Yong-chol's visit to the U.S.,” Thae said.

Thae, who was deputy ambassador to the U.K., came to the South in 2016. He is known to be among the highest-level North Korean officials to have defected.