Ri Tu-ik joined Kim Il Sung's
partisan struggle in the late 1930s and was part of his security escort. After training in guerrilla warfare in northeast China, as a member of the
88th Special Reconnaissance Brigade () of the
Red Army, he led reconnaissance missions against the
Japanese occupation forces in Jilin and
North Hamgyong Province. In 1945 he was first platoon leader and then in 1948 company commander in the security escort of Kim Il Sung. During the
Korean War, known in North Korea as "Victorious Liberation of the Fatherland", Ri was commander of a battalion in 1951 and then completed military training between 1954 and 1958 in the areas of joint warfare and special operations in the Soviet Union. On his return in 1958 he became commander of the 3rd regiment and later deputy commander of the 9th Division, before being appointed commander of the 9th Division in 1962. On October 8, 1962, he was also elected for the first time as a deputy of the Supreme People's Assembly. In 1963 he was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed head of the operations department of the
General Staff of the
Korean People's Army. He then acted as the commanding general of the
VII Army Corps between 1965 and 1973 and was an adviser to the
Viet Cong, the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, during the
Vietnam War between 1967 and 1968. At the end of the 1968s Ri Tu-ik had a significant share in purges within the Korean People's Army and was promoted to Colonel General in 1968. At the
fifth party congress of the WPK in 1970 he became a member of the
WPK Central Committee for the first time. After he was the commander of the 2nd Army Group between 1973 and 1976, he served as the commanding general of the
2nd Army Corps from 1977 to 1980 and then became the commanding general of the
4th Army Corps in 1980. On the
6th party congress, which took place in Pyongyang from October 10–14, 1980, he was also elected a member of the
Central Military Commission. He was promoted to general in 1985 and served as commanding general of the
Pyongyang Defense Command from the late 1980s to 1992. Ri was promoted to Vice Marshal on April 20, 1992, and remained active in political life as a member of the Central Military Commission and Kim Jong Il's adviser even after
the death of
Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il's ascending to power in 1994. After undergoing medical treatment in the People's Republic of China in 1997, he ceased to appear in public after 1999. He died death on March 13, 2002, and was buried on March 15, 2002, in the
Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery on
Mount Taesongsan. ==References==