A senior North Korean official was reportedly banished to a labor camp after Kim Jong Un accused him of "breaching doctrine" in a proposal for U.S.-North Korean talks.
Han Song Ryol, once the North Korean vice foreign minister, was sent to a "re-education camp" after he was removed from his position last year, a South Korean Unification Ministry official told Chosun Ilbo.
Han was regarded as a veteran negotiator during U.S.-North Korean talks, Fox News reported.
"We received information from an agency in the second half of last year that there were significant changes in Han Song Ryol's status and reflected the developments," an unnamed government source told the South Korean newspaper Wednesday.
Han's name has also been removed from the list of North Korean officials in 2019, the newspaper reported.
Another unnamed source told Chosun Ilbo that Han and five other officials were sent to Komdok mine in North Korea's South Hamgyong province where they will be reportedly forced into long hours of labor in mines, plantations, and poultry farms.
"It seems a proposal for U.S.-North Korea talks he submitted to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was criticized for breaching doctrine," that source told the news outlet.
Han joined North Korea's Foreign Ministry in 1980 and once said he respected President Donald Trump the most, according to American restauranteur Robert Egan's book "Eating with the Enemy," Fox News reported.
The White House announced earlier this month Trump and Kim will be holding a second summit in February, although the exact location has not been revealed. The summit will most likely address denuclearization talks that have come to a halt since the June 2018 summit in Singapore.
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