Ri Yong-gil's first 'death' was in 2014. The Chief of the General Staff of the North Korean army had been out of the spotlight for a couple of months, not appearing in state propaganda photos alongside the revered leader Kim Jong-un, whom he always accompanied during that intense year of ballistic missile launches into the sea. South Korea's intelligence services shared their conclusion about this disappearance: the veteran North Korean general had been executed. Major international media outlets reported the news without filters. Ri reappeared shortly after.
Ri Yong-gil's second 'death' was in 2016. Pyongyang had dismissed him from his position as a military chief. The South Korean state agency Yonhap then claimed that he had been executed after being accused of corruption and conspiring to create a faction within the ruling Workers' Party that aimed to overthrow the omnipresent leader Kim. Even spokespeople from the Seoul government confirmed the news to Reuters and the New York Times. Obituaries once again spread throughout the international press. Three months after that supposed execution, Ri reappeared at the party's annual congress.
Ri (69 years old) held various high-ranking positions, including Minister of Defense, and in 2023, he regained his position as the highest-ranking military officer after the supreme leader. Since then, he has been a key figure in the military alliance between North Korea and Russia, which has led to the North Korean regime allegedly sending troops to support the Russian army in the war in Ukraine.
"This is the first step towards a world war," warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, after Kiev and Seoul pointed out that there were already thousands of North Korean soldiers deployed in Russian training camps, ready to intervene on the front lines. Ukraine's military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, directly estimated that around 11,000 North Koreans are preparing to fight alongside the Russian army.
Concern among Western powers that a deployment of North Korean troops could trigger an unprecedented escalation in the war has focused on the capabilities of the hermetic North Korean army, whose exact size is unknown, although Seoul estimates it has nearly 1.3 million personnel, approximately 5% of the population.
Kim stated earlier this year that 15.9% of the total GDP of 2024 would be allocated to defense, although international analysts, based on reports from North Korean defectors, claim that the actual spending is over 35%, with some of it aimed at enhancing the nuclear program. Pyongyang boasts of having conducted up to six nuclear tests - four of them under the current Kim's leadership - and developed ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US coast.
General Ri appeared in a photo released by the North Korean news agency a few days ago from a security meeting chaired by Kim Jong-un, who threatened "immediate military action" against Seoul if South Koreans continue to send drones loaded with leaflets against the dictator. The regime remains focused on the cycle of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but from the outside, the worrying news is that Pyongyang is deploying troops to fight against Ukraine.