Ri Yong Ho is the official who was effectively sidelined after the Hanoi meetings and was removed from office because the interlocutors selected by the foreign ministry appeared not to accomplish anything.

Michael Madden

This is a man who might provide some tactical advice to the leader but is otherwise a message bearer with little negotiating or policymaking latitude, instead, they put in someone like Kim Hyok Chol to insulate Choe Son Hui and more substantive diplomatic personnel, to a certain degree he is expendable and his superiors are not.

We have to remember that (Foreign Minister) Ri and Choe are not only North Korea's best people for the job of dealing with the U.S..

Kim can authorize or approve a missile strike while he is away, t... by Michael Madden

Kim can authorize or approve a missile strike while he is away, there's a protocol for launches.

There are only certain designated facilities where these communic... by Michael Madden

There are only certain designated facilities where these communications can be activated.

All these guys are Kim Jong Un people, kim Jong Un is going to put people in place he can trust, who are loyal to him.

All these( promoted) guys are top Kim Jong Un guys, all three of them have held very sensitive and high level positions under Kim Jong Un, they're very loyal( to Kim Jong), and all have experience interacting with foreign delegations.

( Kim) is not going to want these military commissars helping themselves to any of this assistance coming to the North, that was a problem during the sunshine period, a lot of misappropriation and malfeasance.

From about June 2017 to earlier this year, the KPA general political bureau was under investigation by the( ruling Worker's Party), the first time in 20 years that the GPB was under investigation.

They are shaping these guys up because there is going to be a lot of foreign interaction, they know to sit there and not get too drunk at the parties ... they know how to behave themselves.

There's not much of a contrast in how South Korea and North Korea are reporting this, i'm kind of stunned that they're following the script.

We don’t know a tremendous amount about him [Kim Jong Un], but we... by Michael Madden

We don’t know a tremendous amount about him [Kim Jong Un], but we have enough for a good picture.

Kim Yo Jong has a bigger policy portfolio [than her brother], and is more powerful than we’re giving her credit for.

We don’t know a tremendous amount about him [Kim Jong Un], but we have a enough for a good picture.

She softens his image. by Michael Madden

She softens his image.

His status has always been kind of questionable within the Kim family, and he’s had multiple jobs. But he’s mild mannered, and a ‘yes man,’.

When that thing went off and entered into a lower earth orbit, he got credit for that, the nuclear and missile guys under Kim Jong Un are getting their jobs based on merit.

He is a guy that’s helped them identify certain technical problems or reach certain technical benchmarks and that’s a critical thing.

Kim Jong Un has been very good actually about promoting people that didn’t have the traditional patronage ties.

PUST exposes them to all sorts of subject matter and to interesting people, they benefit enormously from that, and North Korea is not going to upset that applecart.

Foreign nationals in the DPRK really have to allow for there to be no ambiguity or interpretation about any of their interactions or what they're doing.