Jo Myong-rok, a top North Korea military official, has died of chronic heart disease at the age of 82, Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday, quoting the (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Jo, first vice chairman of the North National Defense Commission, was one of the most powerful political and military figures in the communist regime for decades.
Carrying Jo's obituary, the KCNA gave no indication that his death is related to the North's ongoing processing of another father-to-son power transfer, Yonhap said. It only said that he died Saturday of "an inveterate heart disease."
The KCNA described him as "a revolutionary comrade loyal to leader Kim Jong-il and a prominent activist of the Workers' Party of Korea, the state and the army of the DPRK (North Korea) who devoted his whole life to the sacred struggle for the freedom and independence of the country and the victory of the cause of socialism."