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12 Facts About Jong Kyong-thaek

1.

Jong Kyong-thaek served as the Minister of State Security from 2018 to 2022, a member of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, an alternate member of the Politburo of the WPK, and a member of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea.

2.

Jong Kyong-thaek worked closely with Kim Il-sung, traveling with the leader to meet Stalin in Moscow in March 1949, and joining Kim's new Military Affairs Commission with the outbreak of the Korean War.

3.

Jong Kyong-thaek Jun-thaek had an economics university named after him in Kangwon in 1960.

4.

Jong Kyong-thaek travelled to Syria and Sudan in 1972 on diplomatic missions, meeting President Assad.

5.

Jong Kyong-thaek's appears to have made his career with the Korean People's Army.

6.

Jong Kyong-thaek first surfaced as a public figure in November 2015, when he was listed on the funeral committee for Ri Ul-sol, the Korean People's Army General and elder Manchurian guerrilla veteran.

7.

Choe and Jong Kyong-thaek's appointments are intended to usher in 3rd generation DPRK cadres in the internal security services.

8.

Jong Kyong-thaek probably supervised the mobilization of additional electronic capabilities and personnel to monitor the DPRK's defense industry.

9.

Since October 2017, Jong Kyong-thaek has been a member of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea and an alternate member of the Politburo of the WPK.

10.

At the sixth session of the 13th Supreme People's Assembly on 11 April 2018, Jong Kyong-thaek took Kim Won-hong's seat in the State Affairs Commission of North Korea.

11.

Jong Kyong-thaek was part of a high-level welcoming delegation for China's paramount leader Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan, greeting them both at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun square and attending an artistic performance with them in Pyongyang on 20 June 2019.

12.

Jong Kyong-thaek was promoted to the rank of general on 23 May 2020.