Name   Ri Je-gang Sex   Male Date of Birth   1930 Place of Birth     Posts Held First deputy chief of the organizational bureau of the Korean Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, member of the 11th Supreme People’s Assembly Claim to Fame Korean Workers’ Party member Education Kim Il Sung University Profile Ri Je-gang is among five figures who have shot to prominence in the Kim Jong-il era. He is considered one of the closest aides to Kim’s second wife, Ko Yong-hui. He started his career in 1973 as a director of the organizational bureau of the Korean Workers’ Party’s Central Committee. Later that year, Kim Jong-il took over the bureau and began forming a lasting friendship with Ri. In 1982, Ri was made deputy chief of the bureau and Kim’s personal secretary. In 1999, Ri became first deputy chief of the bureau and senior secretary to the eventual North Korean leader. Having spent more than three decades at the same bureau, Ri is believed to have supervised the selection and assignment of party cadres. Known as calm and composed, Ri has recently suffered from poor health and spent a lot of his time in the hospital. Rumors also say he was behind the 2004 purge of Kim’s brother-in-law, Jang Song-thaek.

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