China said on the 14th that it dismissed Vice Minister Sun Weidong of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who had overseen Asian diplomacy including the Korean Peninsula.
The China State Council carried out a reshuffle of state civil servants that day, including dismissing Vice Minister Sun. A native of Jiangsu province, Sun is a diplomat known as an "Asia hand," having served across the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Asian Affairs Department and its policy research and planning divisions. After serving as ambassador to Pakistan and ambassador to India, he was promoted to vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nov. 2022.
When Kim Jong-un, the North Korean state affairs commission chairman, visited China on Sept. of last year, Sun greeted him at Beijing Railway Station alongside Cai Qi, the Communist Party of China Secretariat member, and Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, emerging as a key figure on the North Korea diplomacy line.
The most recent official activity disclosed was consultations on the 28th of last month regarding the Philippines and the South China Sea issue. In diplomatic circles, there is also speculation that Sun will be promoted.
Meanwhile, following Sun's dismissal, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will shift to a four–vice minister lineup of Qi Yu, Ma Zhaoxu, Hua Chunying and Miao Deyu. It is not yet known who will take over Sun's portfolio on the Korean Peninsula. On the recent trip to North Korea by Director General Wang, Vice Minister Hua Chunying accompanied the delegation.