On January 1, 2020, North Korean news agency reported that significant personnel affairs of key officials and party vice-chairmen took place at the end of 2019 at the General Assembly of the Korean Labor Party Central Committee.

He was appointed Ambassador to Russia on August 28, 2014 and served in that position until 2019, he coordinated the first meeting between General Secretary Kim Jong Un and the Russian President, Vladimir Putin in April 2019, was also nominated as a candidate for political affairs by being appointed the party's vice chairman and the party's international director.

He is in charge of foreign affairs at the party and is expected to strengthen relations with Russia.

[2] He was elected as a member of the State Affairs Commission at the 3rd meeting of the 14th convocation of the Supreme People's Assembly on April 12, 2020.

In September 2021, at the fifth session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea , he was removed from his posts as a member of the State Affairs Council and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly.