Report: NKorea to replace top diplomat in Geneva, purported manager of secret fund overseas

Report: NKorea to replace top diplomat in Geneva

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea plans to replace its top diplomat in Switzerland who is believed to be a key manager of leader Kim Jong Il’s alleged secret funds stashed overseas, a news report said Wednesday.

Ri Tcheul, North Korea’s ambassador to U.N. agencies in Geneva, is to step down as early as late this month following about 30 years of service in Switzerland, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unidentified diplomat in Bern.

Ri is one of Kim’s closest associates, believed to have managed the leader’s illicit money in secret bank accounts in Switzerland, the report said. There was no word on who will succeed him, Yonhap said.

A staff member at the North’s permanent mission in Geneva contacted by telephone said he had no knowledge of Ri’s reported replacement. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report. The Swiss Foreign Ministry declined to comment, referring queries to North Korea’s Foreign Ministry.

Kim is believed to have stashed away billions of dollars in Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore and other countries to finance the North’s weapons programs, buy lavish gifts for his top deputies to ensure their loyalty and maintain his luxurious lifestyle, according to South Korean media reports and experts.

Yonhap said it is not clear why the North has decided to replace the diplomat, but overexposure may have made it difficult for him to maneuver, according to Seoul-based analyst Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

“Ri Tcheul has been exposed too much” as the manager of the secret funds, Yang said.

The change could also be aimed at replacing the 75-year-old Ri with a younger, newer face while Kim is believed to be moving to hand over power to one of his sons, said Koh Yu-hwan at Seoul’s Dongguk University.

Ri, a graduate of Pyongyang’s prestigious Kim Il Sung University, started working as chief of North Korea’s Geneva mission in 1987, after serving as its minister for seven years, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North.

A fluent French speaker, Ri played a key role in helping Kim, his family and top North Korean officials receive medical treatment from French doctors, Yonhap said.

North Korea was slapped with tighter sanctions following its second nuclear test last year. The order bans North Korea from exporting arms, calls for freezing assets, and forbids travel abroad for certain companies and individuals involved in the country’s nuclear and weapons programs.

South Korean media reported last month that Kim had fired the director of his secret moneymaking “Room 39″ bureau believed to use business ventures to provide funds for Kim, his family and senior officials.

Kim Dong Un, the Room 39 chief who was reportedly fired, had been blacklisted by the European Union in December, making his movements in Europe difficult and prompting the change in personnel, Yonhap said last month.

Wednesday’s report came as the North escalated its rhetoric against the U.S. and South Korea over their ongoing military drills that Pyongyang has long slammed as a rehearsal for attack.

“Aggressors and traitors keen to bring a war to the inviolable territory of the country, indifferent to the destiny of the nation, will not be able to escape a merciless punishment,” the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary Wednesday.

The U.S. and South Korea have said the exercises — which began Monday for an 11-day run — are purely defensive and they have no intention of invading the North.

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Associated Press writer Eliane Engeler in Geneva contributed to this report.