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The North's official Korean Central News Agency on Monday included Kim Yong-chol's name on a list of officials who accompanied the country's Kim Jong-un to an art performance given by the wives of military officers on Sunday, reports The New York Times.But on a roster of officials attending the event, Kim Yong-chol's name was listed 10th among 12 officials named.In North Korea, an official's status is commonly gauged by his name's ranking in leadership rosters carried by state-run media.In another telltale sign of his declining influence, Kim Yong-chol was not seen next to Kim Jong-un, as he often used to be, in photos carried by the North Korean news agency on Monday.On May 31, the conservative Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's largest daily newspaper, reported that Kim Yong-chol had been sent to a re-education camp as part of a political purge of senior North Korean officials held responsible for the breakdown of the second summit meeting held in February between the Kim Jong-un, and US President Donald Trump.The Hanoi meeting was widely seen as a huge embarrassment for Kim Jong-un, who is seen as infallible in his totalitarian state, The New York Times said.During the summit meeting, Kim Jong-un demanded that Trump lift the most painful international sanctions against his country in return for partially dismantling his country's nuclear weapons facilities.The meeting collapsed when Trump insisted on a quick and comprehensive rollback of the North's entire weapons of mass destruction program before lifting sanctions, leaving Kim to return home empty-handed.Key members of Kim Yong-chol's team, including the North's special envoy to US, Kim Hyok-chol, and Kim Song-hye, both of whom accompanied Kim Yong-chol when he visited Trump in the Oval Office in January, have since disappeared from the North's state-run news media.They led working-level negotiations with US officials ahead of the Hanoi summit.The Chosun Ilbo had reported that Kim Hyok-chol was executed by firing squad in March. But South Korean officials could not confirm the report.Meanwhile, Lee Sang-min, a spokesman for the South's Unification Ministry, said on Monday that his Ministry had no comment on Kim Yong-chol's reappearance in North Korean media.But he confirmed that the report on Monday marked the first time North Korean state media had mentioned Kim Yong-chol's name in 50 days.( With inputs from IANS )

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