notice

An obituary of O Kuk Ryol was published on February 10 in the joint name of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK. It said:

O Kuk Ryol, winner of Order of Kim Il Sung and Order of Kim Jong Il, twice-DPRK Hero and advisor to the former Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces, died of acute heart failure at 9:00 on February 9 2023, at the age of 93. 

He was a loyal revolutionary soldier of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il and a veteran revolutionary who devoted himself to the sacred cause of strengthening and developing our Party and state and building up the country’s defence capability under the great trust of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un.

He was born to a revolutionary’s family in the period of Japanese military rule over Korea and suffered all kinds of persecution and maltreatment in the alien land. After the country’s liberation he grew up to be a hardcore member to carry on the lifeblood of the revolution at Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in the warm embrace of President Kim Il Sung.

Fighting as a competent air force commander during the Fatherland Liberation War, he contributed to annihilating the US air pirates, fully exhibiting the indomitable spirit and valour of the heroic Korean People’s Army and bringing war victory. 

Thanks to the great political trust of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il, he was promoted to an army general in his thirties and successively filled various army posts of deputy commander and commander of the KPA Air Force, the first deputy chief of the KPA General Staff and concurrently director of the Operations Department and chief of the General Staff, leaving indelible marks in thoroughly implementing the WPK’s Juche-oriented army building idea and line and radically enhancing the combat capability of the People’s Army.

After working for a long time at the important post of the Party Central Committee, he held an important post of vice-chairman of the National Defence Commission and set a fine example in faithfully upholding the leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un at the crucial historic period of succession to the revolutionary cause of Juche as a veteran cadre of the Party and state, and made a great contribution to the buildup of national power and victorious advance of socialist construction.

He remained faithful to the cause of our Party to the last moment of his life and earned respect of our people and KPA service personnel for his consistent fidelity to the revolutionary principle and honest and sincere characters.

The distinguished feats of O Kuk Ryol, who had done many things conducive to the growth of our state and army and improvement of the wellbeing of our people by upholding the revolutionary cause of Juche with invariable faith and conscience all his life, bearing in mind pure-hearted loyalty to the leader as befits the descendant of the first-generation loyalist of our revolution, brought honour to his family as a revolutionary and patriotic one put forward by our Party. 

Though he passed away, his devoted efforts and feats for the Party and revolution and the cause of building a powerful socialist country will be remembered for long.