Liu Hongcai

Liu Hongcai (born June 1955) is a Chinese diplomat, currently the deputy head of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China; he is the former Chinese Ambassador to North Korea.
Liu was born in 1955 in Liaoning. He studied Japanese at Beijing Second Foreign Language Institute from 1972 to 1975. In his final year, Liu joined the Communist Party of China and was assigned to the International Department of the Central Committee upon graduation. Between the years of 1989 to 1992, he served as First Secretary at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo. In 2003, he was appointed Vice Minister of the International Department. In 2010, he succeeded Liu Xiaoming as the Chinese Ambassador to North Korea.