The announcement of Jon Pyong-ho's death came as North Korea launched short-range missiles into its eastern waters in the early hours of Wednesday.
The missiles, which an official of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said appeared to be ballistic Scud-class, were launched from a province in western North Korea and flew about 500km (310 miles) before falling into waters to the northeast.
Jon, a highly decorated general in the Korean People's Army (KPA) and senior Worker's Party of Korea (WPK) figure, died at 88 of natural causes, state media said.
"He made a special contribution to turning the KPA into a powerful elite revolutionary army equipped with modern and defensive means and converting the DPRK into a satellite producer, launcher and a nuclear weapons state," the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
Jon's passing is unlikely to have any impact on the North's weapons program because he had been retired from the frontlines and had passed his duties on to successors. However, he was still an influential figure.
"He was certainly so powerful that when he left office as WPK secretary and director of munitions industries in 2010, Kim Jong-il essentially split his old position in two," said Michael Madden, an expert on the North's leadership.
A graduate of Moscow State University and a close adviser to late leader Kim Jong Il, Jon worked for more than four decades as a senior figure in the production and development of North Korean arms before retiring from public life in 2011.
When he was in office he oversaw development of the isolated, impoverished North's long-range ballistic missile programs and was directly involved with its first test of a nuclear device in 2006.
He helped broker a deal with Pakistan in the 1990s that provided North Korea with critical technology for its uranium enrichment program and exported advanced North Korean missile technology that is still in use by Pakistan.
By Ruchi Singh
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
