'Father' of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile program passes away
Today (September 4), North Korean media announced that a former official of the country who was put on the US sanctions blacklist related to allegations of participating in missile and nuclear technology development programs has passed away.
 |
| Mr. Ju Kyu Chang (left) participated in an inspection tour with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2010. |
North Korea's state news agency KCNA said that "academician and professor" Ju Kyu Chang passed away on September 3 at the age of 89. Mr. Ju died after battling "hemoglobinemia," a blood disease.
Accordingly, Mr. Ju once held the position of Minister of Defense of North Korea and was in charge of the country's nuclear weapons and missile development program. In the obituary published by KCNA, Mr. Ju was described as "an elderly revolutionary who made enormous contributions to the development of national defense capabilities."
Mr. Ju was one of the North Korean officials sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in 2013 for his alleged role in North Korea's nuclear program.
Yonhap news agency said that Mr. Ju supervised the launch of the Unha-2 long-range rocket in 2009 with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. He also participated in the development of two Unha-3 long-range rockets launched in 2012 before retiring in 2015.
In recent years, North Korea's nuclear weapons development program has achieved great success. To date, Pyongyang has conducted six successful nuclear tests. The number of successful launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) is also quite a few.
Last year, leader Kim Jong-un declared that North Korea was a nuclear state with the ability to mount nuclear warheads on ICBMs, which are believed to have the range to reach the east coast of the United States.