The son-in-law of’Kim Jong-un safeguard’ also exiled…

The son-in-law of former Labor Party Officer No. 39, Jeon Il-chun, who served as the’safety keeper’ of the State Council Chairman Kim Jong-un after Kim Jong-il, came to Korea with his family and settled. Room 39 is the Labor Party’s department that manages foreign currency earning and manages foreign currency earned.

Ryu Hyun-woo (center), the former ambassador of the North Korean embassy in Kuwait, who entered Korea in 2019, attended an interview with Lee Soo-yong at the time of the injury of the Foreign Ministry and a delegation of the Oman Foreign Ministry who visited North Korea in May 2015. [연합뉴스]

Ryu Hyun-woo (name changed after arriving in Korea), who came to South Korea in September 2019 while serving as the ambassador of the North Korean embassy in Kuwait, said in a call on the 25th, “I decided to go to Korea for my daughter’s bright future.” Dan Ryu avoided responding to the craftsman. They asked not to comment on certain family-related information as “personal history.”

Rep. Tae Young-ho, who came to South Korea during the construction of the North Korean embassy in the UK, said, “I know that the father-in-law of the person (Ryu Hyun-woo) was in real life.” In simple terms from a middle aide, he explained that it is the core of the power responsible for the royal court economy. Regarding the relationship between Jeon Il-chun and Kim Jong-il, Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Tae explained, “We know each other as alumni and humanly as a close relationship.”

The international community tightened sanctions against North Korea through a resolution of the UN Security Council (2371) following North Korea’s successive nuclear tests and missile launches in 2017. As part of that, the government took measures to expel workers and ambassadors from each country, and the government authorities believe that Ryu served as an ambassador on behalf of the ambassador who had been vacant for more than two years from the end of that year until entering Korea. . He played a similar role to Cho Sung-gil, who came to Korea after serving as an Italian ambassador, and came to Korea at the same time.

Jeon Il-chun Former Labor Party Officer No. 39 [조선중앙TV 캡처]

A source on North Korea said, “The North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs often raises its own operating funds locally.” The burden on the councilors who served as the ambassador’s behalf would have been increased.” It is an analysis that high-ranking North Korean defectors who have stayed abroad may have been affected by sanctions against North Korea along with personal reasons.

In fact, the North Korean embassy in Kuwait, where Mr. Liu stayed, was also reduced in size in 2019 and moved from downtown Kuwait to the outskirts. In the process, rumors have circulated among defectors that Ryu suffered a difficult situation due to the loss of important items. In this regard, Mr. Ryu dismissed the call, saying, “It’s a weird story.”

North Korea’s Jeon Il-chun (original proposal), former Labor Party Officer No. 39, accompanied Kim Jong-il, chairman of the National Defense Commission, to a local guidance center on the commercial center of the Liberation District, giving a report. It was two days before Chairman Kim’s death. [연합뉴스]

Mr. Ryu was spared not only the timing of entry to Korea but also the process. However, a government official said, “I know that Mr. Ryu visited the Korean embassy in Kuwait and clearly wanted to go to Korea,” and said, “If North Korea learns of his asylum, a’chase squad’ can come out and it can be a diplomatic problem. “I went to Korea quickly,” he said. Unlike Ambassador Cho Sung-gil, who came to Korea after eight months of exile from the West, Ryu’s entry into Korea took less than a week, according to officials.

According to sources, Ryu, who graduated from the Department of Arabic at Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies, went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after serving in the military and lived abroad in Syria, which is one of North Korea’s’friends’. Although North Korea has a strong political relationship with Egypt and Syria, North Korean diplomats in charge of Arabs prefer to work in Kuwait. As of 2016, more than 4,000 North Korean workers were dispatched to Kuwait to operate, and foreign currency income was good. North Korea once operated irregular air routes to Kuwait.

Jeon Il-chun, former chief of staff No. 39 (original plan), is conducting a local guidance at the Pyongyang Central Zoo in May 2012 by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (then first chairman of the National Defense Commission). [연합뉴스]

A North Korean defector who was a North Korean diplomat said, “Now most of the workers withdrew, but North Korea established a trade office in Kuwait in the early 1960s, and in 1970, it was upgraded to the Trade Representative Office. It is operated by the Ministry of Trade (currently the Ministry of Foreign Economy), and I know that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also opened a resident embassy in Kuwait in 2003 to procure foreign currency.” He added, “Ryu was appointed to Kuwait, which is one of the preferred places of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Ryu’s wife graduated from Kim Il-Sung University’s economics department, but it means that the former chief of staff may have become a “back-up” to follow her husband and live in Kuwait, where the working environment is relatively good.

Jeon Il-chun, who was identified as born in 1941, is one year older than Chairman Kim Jong-il, but he is known as the motive of Namsan High School Junior High School, where Chairman Kim and the sons of high-ranking party officials attend. In the 1980s, during the Kim Il-sung era, he served as Vice-Chairman of the Foreign Economic Business Department and Vice-Chairman of the Foreign Economic Committee of Jeong Mu-won (current Cabinet), and then moved to the Party to serve as Vice-Chief and Chief of Room 39.

In 2015, the North Korean media showed that Kim Jong-un was accompanied by the local guidance of the State Council, which means that the former chief managed foreign currency for the three generations of North Korea’s top leaders. A source on North Korea said, “The reason why Jeon Il-chun won as head of Office 39 was not because he was motivated by Chairman Kim Jong-il, but because he showed excellent ability to manage foreign currency like the lifeblood of North Korea.” “It must have been evaluated that it played a role in helping to survive without collapse.” Government authorities believe that he withdrew from his incumbent position around 2017 as part of a generational change.
After he retired, he moved from a luxury apartment provided by the North Korean authorities to an ordinary apartment, and the authorities understand that he is living a life similar to that of ordinary people.

Reporters Jeong Yong-soo and Park Hyun-joo [email protected]