Seoul lawmaker: Top Kim adviser in North removed from post

A South Korean lawmaker says that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s most trusted policy adviser apparently has been removed from one of his posts.

The head of parliament’s intelligence committee, Lee Hye-hoon, on Wednesday cited South Korea’s main spy agency as saying that Kim Yong Chol lost his Workers’ Party post in charge of relations with South Korea.

She said she received a private briefing from the National Intelligence Service.

If confirmed, the development would add to speculation that Kim is being sidelined from nuclear diplomacy after February’s North Korean-U.S. summit ended abruptly.

He has been North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator and counterpart of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo since Kim Jong Un entered nuclear talks with the U.S. early last year.