North Korean official reappears days after reported hard labor sentence

A top North Korean official involved in this year’s failed summit with President Trump reappeared in state media photos showing him sitting near Kim Jong Un following reports he was sentenced to hard labor.

The Associated Press reports that the pictures, published on Monday, show Kim Yong Chol sitting five seats away from the North Korean leader at a concert.

{mosads}Reports surfaced last week that Kim Yong Chol had been sentenced to hard labor and several other top officials were executed for their role in nuclear negotiations at the second summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un.

A report from Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, however, listed Kim Yong Chol as an attendee of the concert.

He was a top nuclear negotiator for North Korea and served as the counterpart to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the summit in February.

The summit ended abruptly after Trump said North Korea was demanding too much in exchange for relief from sanctions imposed by the United States.