North Korean Envoy 'Drowned' in Moscow Pond: Reports

The head of an elite North Korean military delegation that was deployed to Russia last week has been found dead in Moscow, according to local reports.

Kim Geum Chol, president of the Kim Il Sung Military University, is said to have drowned while swimming in the Russian capital, according to the SHOT Telegram channel, a Russian channel that posts updates on the Ukraine war, and the Astra Telegram channel, a project run by independent Russian journalists.

Newsweek couldn't independently verify the reports and has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment by email.

Kim and his delegation departed from Pyongyang on July 8, the news agency Yonhap said, on the first public visit by North Korean officials to Russia since Pyongyang and Moscow signed a new strategic partnership agreement in June.

The purpose of the delegation's visit is unclear.

According to SHOT, as a heat wave swept Russia, Kim, 64, went to the Bolshoy Gorodskoy Pond in Moscow for a swim to cool off, and "disappeared."

"A member of a North Korean delegation drowned while swimming in Moscow. Kim was in Russia on a working visit," the channel said on Tuesday.

His colleagues raised the alarm and found his belongings on the shore. They contacted the police, who searched for him for several hours, without success. His body was found in the Bolshoy Gorodskoy Pond the next day.

"He has already been identified. An investigation is underway into the incident," SHOT said.

North Korea and Russia have deepened their ties since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022. The Russian leader's visit to Pyongyang in June was his first in 24 years.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said in June that Article 4 of the new agreement reached between Russia and North Korea during Putin's historic visit requires either party to deploy "all means at its disposal without delay" to provide "military and other assistance" should one nation be attacked.

"The comprehensive partnership agreement signed today provides, among other things, for mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement," Putin was cited as saying by Russian news agency Tass.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called the agreement the "strongest ever treaty" signed between Pyongyang and Moscow, while Putin invited him to visit the Russian capital in the future, according to Russian media outlets.

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