Top U.S. Official to CNN: North Korea Envoy Reported Executed Over Failed Summit Has ‘Certainly Disappeared’

A U.S. official told CNN there’s “no independent information” on what happened to various top North Korean officials amid reports they were executed, but two of them “have certainly disappeared.”

NEW: Sr diplomatic source on Kim Jong Un’s alleged purge: NKorean top officials Kim Hyok Chol and Kim Yong Chol “have certainly disappeared.” But there’s “no independent information or intelligence at this point on what’s happened to them.”

— Michelle Kosinski (@MichLKosinski) May 31, 2019

CNN’s Michelle Kosinski reported she spoke with a senior diplomatic source on the alleged purge following the failed summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

The two top officials in question, Kim Hyok Chol and Kim Yong Chol “have certainly disappeared,” according to the diplomatic source, but there is “no independent information or intelligence at this point on what’s happened to them.”

A single anonymous source told a newspaper in Seoul that Hyok Chol, a key figure in talks ahead of the Hanoi summit, was executed at an airport in Pyongyang. However, previous reports of high-profile deaths or executions in North Korea have been later proven false.

For example, South Korean intelligence officials said in 2016 that a former military chief had been executed for corruption–only for him to later turn up on state media channels with an apparent promotion.

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