Ri led a North Korean delegation for the first high-level inter-Korean talks in more than two years in January 2018.

He was once known the right-hand man of Kim Yong-chol, and appeared at a second round of inter-Korean working-level military talks in October 2006.

[2] In January 2020, he was named in media reports as the successor for Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho.

[3][4][5] On 11 February 2021, he was elected as a member of the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea.

[6] On 11 June 2022, during the fifth enlarged plenary meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the WPK, Ri was appointed as the head of the United Front Department.