Ryo Won-gu (November 1928 – July 2009; Korean: 려원구) was a North Korean politician. She is best known for her work on inter-Korean diplomacy during her time as chair of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea and vice chair of the Supreme People's Assembly.
Ryo Won-gu was born in 1928 in Keijō, Keiki-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan. [1] [2] [3] She was the third daughter of the politician Lyuh Woon-hyung, a Korean reunification activist and politician who was assassinated in 1947. [1] [2] Before her father's assassination, in July 1946, Ryo Won-gu and her older sister Ryo Yon-gu had defected to North Korea and moved to Pyongyang. [2] [4] [5]
Then, from 1946 to 1954, Ryo lived in Moscow, where she was a student at Moscow State University. [1] [2] [6]
For a period beginning in 1989, Ryo taught at Pyongyang's Kim Chaek University of Technology. [1] [2] [5] Then, beginning in 1991, she served as vice chairman of North Korea's Education Committee, an equivalent to the deputy secretary of education or vice education minister in some other countries. [1] [5]
From 1998 to 2009, Ryo served as a vice chairperson of the 10th and 11th Supreme People's Assemblies. [2] [7] [8] Also beginning in 1998, she became co-chairwoman of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea. [1] [2] She also served as a delegate to the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly. [1] In her work, she often followed in her sister Ryo Yong-gu's footsteps, succeeding her in her roles in both the Supreme People Assembly and the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea after Ryo Yong-gu's death in 1996. [2]
Ryo Won-gu was heavily involved in diplomatic efforts between North and South Korea, especially after her sister's death, and was considered an expert on the subject of South Korean relations. [2] [6] [9] In 2000, she helped host South Korean President Kim Dae-jung during that year's inter-Korean summit. [6] Then, in 2002, she drew notice by visiting Seoul on Liberation Day, paying a visit to her father's grave in the city during her trip. [1] [2]
In 2005, Ryo was awarded the National Reunification Prize by the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly. [10] In 2007, she was named a recipient of the Order of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's highest order. [11] She died in 2009 at the age of 81. [1] [12]