North Korea replaced its deputy ambassador to the United Nations from An Myong-hun to Kim In-ryong early this month, although An's term fell far short of that of his predecessors, a US broadcaster, monitored here, reported Wednesday.

"The replacement is unusual as An's tenure was less than two years, compared with his predecessors' four to five years on average," the Radio Free Asia (RFA) said, citing a UN source. An was appointed to the post in December 2014.

Kim's relations with the North Korean UN Ambassador Ja Song-nam was behind the replacement, the broadcaster said.

The new deputy ambassador is known to have been a maritime affairs councilor at the British Embassy in 2011, when Ja was the ambassador there, according the broadcaster.

Kim's appointment was first confirmed last Monday, when he delivered a speech on the reform of the UN Security Council at the UN's plenary session, the broadcaster said.

At that time, Kim, who showed up just three days after his appointment, criticized the international community's sanctions on his country, and claimed that a nuclear war can break out on the Korean Peninsula at any time, the broadcaster said.

He also attended a news conference held right after the passage of the 12th North Korean human rights resolution by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday that calls for the referral of the North Korean leadership's human rights violations to the International Criminal Court., .

Kim said that Pyongyang "categorically rejects" the resolution, asserting that it has "political purposes to defame and eliminate the DPRK as well as it is based on lies and fabricated information." DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea. (Yonhap)