32 Facts About Choe Son-hui

Choe Son-hui is the Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Korea.

Choe Son-hui has worked in the foreign ministry as section chief and deputy director.

Choe Son-hui was made a regular vice minister in 2018 with a North American portfolio.

Choe Son-hui became the first vice minister the following year.

Choe Son-hui had referred to US Vice President Mike Pence as a "political dummy", angering Trump.

Choe Son-hui was born on 10 August 1964 in North Korea.

Choe Son-hui is the stepdaughter of Choe Yong-rim, a former Premier of North Korea.

Choe Son-hui was educated in North Korea, China, Austria, and Malta and is fluent in English.

Choe Son-hui is a senior diplomat, with more than a decade of experience in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Choe Son-hui is very experienced in negotiating on the nuclear program of North Korea, and negotiating with the United States.

Choe Son-hui worked as an interpreter and aide in nuclear talks under First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kye-gwan.

Choe Son-hui participated in such talks in the 1990s and until the six-party talks were foiled in 2009, and onward to the 2010 Washington-Pyongyang dialogue.

Choe Son-hui served in this capacity during former US president Bill Clinton's visit to Pyongyang following the 2009 imprisonment of American journalists by North Korea and a similar visit by Jimmy Carter.

Choe Son-hui has interpreted for North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, including during the 2013 visit by Dennis Rodman, which she reportedly opposed, and for Kim's uncle Jang Song-thaek.

Choe Son-hui was vice negotiator for 2011 talks with the US.

Choe Son-hui has worked as a researcher in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Choe Son-hui regularly participates in track 1.5 and track 2 diplomacy.

Choe Son-hui has said that severing of United States' military alliance with Japan and South Korea are prerequisites for negotiations and that US withdrawal from Korea should be a verifiable process.

Choe Son-hui has served as section chief, deputy director, and, since 2016, deputy director-general of the North American department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Choe Son-hui was deputy director of the Institute for American Studies under the ministry.

In June 2016, Choe Son-hui became director of the department and director of IFAS.

Choe Son-hui was elected to the 14th Supreme People's Assembly in 2019, representing the 484th Electoral District.

Choe Son-hui was promoted to the rank of Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs in late February 2018, replacing Han Song-ryol and taking his North America portfolio.

Choe Son-hui's appointment had been interpreted as reflecting North Korea's willingness to negotiate with the United States as she had allegedly expressed a conciliatory position during the initial 2017 North Korea crisis.

Choe Son-hui is thought to have direct access to Kim Jong Un, and according to The Times Daniel Hurst, "it is unlikely that she was speaking without the authority of Mr Kim".

Choe Son-hui was replaced as the head of working-level negotiations in early 2019.

Choe Son-hui made a last-minute suggestion that all facilities of the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center could be demolished.

Choe Son-hui received a series of promotions in April 2019, becoming a member of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the State Affairs Commission.

Choe Son-hui was elevated to first First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, likely replacing her former superior Kim Kye-gwan, who had not been seen in public since 2017.

Choe Son-hui is one of a few women in holding such a high-level office in North Korean politics overall.

On 11 June 2022, Choe Son-hui was appointed as the minister of foreign affairs, becoming the first woman to hold the position.

In December 2024, during the plenary session of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, Choe Son-hui was promoted to become a member of the WPK Politburo.