SOUTH Korean intelligence was left with egg on its face yesterday when North Korean General Ri Yong Gil, who was reportedly executed in February, turned up with several new senior posts.

The former chief of staff missed two key national meetings in February, prompting Seoul intelligence officials to assert that North Korean King Kim Jong Un had had him executed for corruption and other misdemeanours.

Despite this, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported on Monday, following the conclusion of the Workers Party of Korea national congress, that Mr Ri had been appointed a member of the party’s central committee, an alternate member of its political bureau and a member of the central military commission.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry confirmed the error yesterday after analysing North Korean state media photos and video of the party congress.

But the National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s main spy agency, claimed that it had never disclosed any information on dead man walking Gen Ri.