But he is also extremely controversial — even for a top apparatchik within the tyrannical regime. South Korea blames Kim Yong Chol for sinking its navy ship called the Cheonan in 2010, and angry relatives of the 46 sailors killed protested when he came to South Korea as the North’s envoy to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in February. He also allegedly had a hand in North Korea’s deadly shelling of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island six months later.