North Korean Foreign Minster Ri Son Gwon was elected as a member of the Political Bureau of the ruling Workers' Party, state media reported Friday.

Supplied photo of North Korean Foreign Minster Ri Son Gwon. (Photo courtesy of Korea Media)(Kyodo)

Ri was promoted to member during a four-day plenary meeting of the party's Central Committee that wrapped up Thursday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

Kim Song Nam, director of the International Department in the Central Committee who has been in charge of relations with China, was named an alternate bureau member.

The KCNA also said O Su Yong was named a new secretary of the committee and new director of its Department of Economic Affairs, replacing Kim Tu Il, who had just been given the portfolio in January.

As North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has criticized some party organs during the meeting for their "passive and self-protecting tendencies" in setting goals for this year in the country's economic plan, replacing Kim Tu Il is seen as a dismissal.

The state-run media did not report Kim making any remarks on the country's nuclear programs or policy toward the new U.S. administration under President Joe Biden.


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