Ri was born in
South Pyo'ngan Province, Pyo'ngso'ng in
Korea, Empire of Japan on 25 January 1925. He attended the second central political school.
Under Kim Il Sung (1948–1994) After the establishment of North Korea, Ri was named military attache to the North Korean embassy in the
People's Republic of China. In 1964 he was made first vice-chairman of the Politburo of the Korean People's Army (not to be confused with the
Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea) and promoted to
lieutenant general. At the
5th Congress of the Workers' Party in 1970 he was elected to the
Central Committee. In 1973 he was promoted to general and made chairman of the Politburo of the Korean People's Army. He was subsequently elected to the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea in 1974. Ri was purged in 1977 and demoted to a low administrative position. He was however rehabilitated a decade later and made an alternate member of the
6th Central Committee in 1988, to be finally restored to full central committee member in 1989.
Under Kim Jong Il (1994–2011) Ri was elected to the National Defence Commission in 1998, being also promoted to the second highest military rank of vice-marshal. He was reelected in 2003 and 2009. As the Workers' Party politburo, central military commission and central committee were
de facto suspended under
Kim Jong Il's "
military first" policy from 1994 to 2010, the National Defence Commission became in practice the highest decision-making body in the country and Ri hence part of the innermost circle of power. When in 2010 Kim Jong Il revived Workers' Party operations after 16 years of dormancy, Ri was also elected to the politburo.
Under Kim Jong Un (2011–2022) Upon the
death of Kim Jong Il in 2011, Ri was ranked 13th in the funeral committee. This presumably corresponds to his ceremonial rank in the top leadership at that time. Ri retained his place in the Politburo at the
4th Party Conference in 2012, and was reelected to the National Defence Commission by the
13th Supreme People's Assembly.
Death Ri died from a
myocardial infarction on 27 January 2022, at the age of 97 just two days after his birthday. ==See also==