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‘Disappeared’ North Korean official turns up at concert
People watch a TV screen showing an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (third from left) and senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol (right) in a musical performance by the wives of Korean People's Army officers in North Korea during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul

A SENIOR North Korean official said to have been sent to a labour camp for his role in the stalled nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington has turned up alive at a concert alongside the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

South Korean media reported last Friday that Kim Yong Chol had been sentenced to hard labour and “ideological education” following the collapse of Mr Kim’s summit meeting with US President Donald Trump in Vietnam in February.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper also suggested that North Korea’s special envoy to the US, Kim Hyok Chol, had been executed along with several other foreign ministry officials in March.

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