North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

Ri Jae Il

Ri Jae Il is a director of the CC KWP Propaganda and Agitation Department and an aide in KJI’s Personal Secretariat.  He is also an alternate member of the Party Central Committee.  He reports to Kim Jong Il on the DPRK’s media and arts and may prvide daily guidance and management of the North Korean press and media.  He was promoted to PAD’s Senior Deputy (1st Vice) Director in May 2004.  From 1993 until his promotion to PAD Deputy Director in 2003 Ri was chief of PAD’s General Publications Guidance Bureau.[1]

Ri Jae Il regularly travels on Kim Jong Il’s guidance tours, although his presence is more often observed in photographs of these events rather than explicitly reported by KCNA.  Ri was first reported to have accompanied KJI to a concert by KPA Officers’ families in May 2004.

Ri Jae Il was elected an alternate member of the Party Central Committee on 28 September 2010.


[1] The General Publications Guidance Bureau is responsible for the Party’s editorial management (including censorship) of all news reporting, and most publishing, in the DPRK.

 

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