This photo, dated July 8, 2015, and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), shows North Korean Army Gen. Pak Yong-sik visiting Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang to pay tribute to Kim Il-sung, the founder of the North Korean government. KCNA said on July 11, 2015, that Pak attended a meeting on that day with a Lao military delegation as the head of the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces, equivalent to South Korea’s defense minister. It is the first time the North has confirmed the replacement of the defense minister since South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, said in May that the previous minister, Hyon Yong-chol, was executed in April on charges of treason. (Yonhap)
