He talks of war with US, but North Korea’s top diplomat Ri Yong-ho has a ‘great sense of humour’

During the recent United Nations General Assembly meeting, he emerged as the fire-breathing mouthpiece of North Korea’s inflammatory government. Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho mocked Donald Trump as “President Evil” and offered up sound bites about detonating nuclear bombs over the Pacific and shooting down US planes. But here’s a little secret about Ri: beneath the bluster, he has a reputation as a soft-spoken, self-deprecating diplomat whom US officials have for years deemed one of the most accessible representatives of his government. Gary Samore, a former US diplomat and non-proliferation specialist now at Harvard’s Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs, said: “He was put in that job for the purpose of being the negotiator. His speciality is negotiating with Americans”,  he add: “He is not one of these guys who acts like a caricature of a communist apparatchik. He has a great sense of humour. He is very creative in coming up with wording acceptable to both sides”. Samore described Ri’s as “excellent, superb, idiomatic”.