North Korean envoy to Czech returns home: spy agency

Kim Pyong-il, right, with his children in Narew, Poland, in May 2007 where he was the North Korean Ambassador to the country. Yonhap

Kim Pyong-il, North Korea's top envoy to the Czech Republic, has returned to Pyongyang, intelligence sources said Saturday.

Kim, a younger half-brother of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, recently traveled back to North Korea, National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon was quoted as saying by lawmakers on the parliamentary intelligence committee.

The NIS said earlier this month that Kim had been replaced and was expected to return to Pyongyang soon.

Born in 1954, Kim Pyong-il graduated from Kim Il-sung University, the North's top university, before being appointed as the North's top envoy to Hungary in 1988.

He served as Pyongyang's top envoy to Poland for 17 years until 2014 and assumed the position in Prague in January 2015. (Yonhap)