According to state media reports on Wednesday, North Korean General Jon Pyong-ho has died. Jon was seen as the architect of North Korea’s nuclear program. According to state media, he died at the age of 88 of natural causes. “He made a special contribution to turning the [Korean People’s Army] 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 official KCNA news agency said. His death will not affect current nuclear efforts however, as he retired from public life in 2011. He was behind the deal with Pakistan in the 1990s that got North Korea the technology for its uranium-enrichment program. His death was announced in conjunction with the launching of multiple short-range missiles into the sea.
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