Hong Sung-mu (, born 1 January 1942) is a

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

n nuclear weapons scientist and a

Workers' Party of Korea The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), also called the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), is the sole ruling party of North Korea. Founded in 1949 from a merger between the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of South Korea, the WPK is ...

(WPK) official working with North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and

space programs Government space agencies, established by the governments of countries and regional agencies (groupings of countries) are established as a means for advocating for engaging in activities related to outer space, exploitation of space systems, ...

. He is the deputy director of the party's

Machine Building Industry Department A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecul ...

(MBID) and plays a key part in the country's nuclear weapons program. Hong rose to prominence after the 2011

death of Kim Jong Il The death of Kim Jong Il () was reported by North Korean state television news on 19 December 2011. The presenter Ri Chun-hee announced that he had died on 17 December at 8:30 am of a massive heart attack while traveling by train to an area ...

and succession of

Kim Jong Un Kim Jong Un (born 8 January 1983 or 1984) is a North Korean politician and dictator who has served as supreme leader of North Korea since 2011 and general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is the third son of Kim ...

, after which he has supervised various weapons tests, including the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and

January 2016 North Korean nuclear test North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear detonation on 6 January 2016 at 10:00:01 UTC+08:30. At the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, approximately northwest of Kilju City in Kilju County, an underground nuclear test was carried out. The United ...

s. Hong's involvement in weapons development has landed him on international sanctions lists.

Career

Hong was born on 1 January 1942. He was educated in

Central and Eastern Europe Central and Eastern Europe is a geopolitical term encompassing the countries in Baltic region, Northeast Europe (primarily the Baltic states, Baltics), Central Europe (primarily the Visegrád Group), Eastern Europe, and Southeast Europe (primaril ...

, and possibly in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

too. Hong plays an important role in North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and

. While Hong's responsibility includes

conventional weapons Conventional weapons or conventional arms are weapons whose damaging impact comes from kinetic, incendiary, or explosive energy. They stand in contrast to weapons of mass destruction (''e.g.,'' nuclear, biological, radiological, and chemical w ...

, his work focuses on the nuclear weapons program in particular. Hong was formerly the

chief engineer A chief engineer, commonly referred to as "Chief" or "ChEng", is the most senior licensed mariner (engine officer) of an engine department on a ship, typically a merchant ship, and holds overall leadership and the responsibility of that departmen ...

at the

Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center The Nyongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center (녕변원자력연구소) is North Korea's major nuclear facility, operating its first nuclear reactors. It is located in Nyongbyon County in North Pyongan Province, about 100 km north of ...

. Currently he is the deputy director of the party's

(MBID), where he has worked since the mid-2000s. Since 2010, he has been the number two man of

(WPK) secretary

Pak To-chun General Pak To-chun (; 9 March 1944 – 27 July 2022) was a politician of North Korea. According to his official biography, Pak was born in Jagang Province in 1944 and joined the Korean People's Army in 1960 (becoming a general in 2012). He l ...

. Hong's background is in manufacture and production rather than development and research, as opposed to his superior in the MBID,

Ju Kyu-chang Ju Kyu-chang (25 November 1928 – 3 September 2018) was a North Korean politician, who served as the director of the Workers' Party of Korea's (WPK) Machine-Building Industry Department. Ju was reportedly the head of North Korea's nuclear an ...

. Hong's career took off in earnest after the 2011

, the country's leader, and the succession of

. Hong was number 126 on the funeral committee list of Kim Jong Il. Since 2012, he has accompanied Kim on the occasion of various rocket test launches, and on

on-the-spot guidance "On-the-spot guidance" (also "guidance tours" or "field guidance") is a term used in the North Korean mass media to describe appearances by the supreme leader, often at sites related to the military or to industry, at which the leader gives direc ...

tours since the beginning of 2013. , Hong is an alternate member of the

Central Committee of the WPK The Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea is the highest organ between national meetings of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the ruling party of North Korea. According to WPK rules, the Central Committee is elected by the party co ...

. Hong played a key part supervising the

and

s. He has appeared in the

North Korean media The mass media in North Korea is amongst the most strictly controlled in the world. The constitution nominally provides for freedom of speech and the press. However, the government routinely disregards these rights, and seeks to mold information ...

in connection to those tests, the December 2012 launch of the

Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 () was a North Korean Earth observation satellite which, according to the DPRK, was for weather forecast purposes, and whose launch was widely portrayed in the West to be a veiled ballistic missile test. The satellite was l ...

satellite, and the country's 2017 nuclear test. Hong and his fellow associate in the nuclear weapons program, Ri Hong-sop, are known collectively as North Korea's "nuclear duo". The two were the first in line to receive a medal from Kim Jong-un for success in the January 2016 test. Hong's role in the nuclear program has landed him on the sanctions list of either the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, or

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

has added Hong on its "list of persons and entities responsible for the DPRK's nuclear-related, ballistic-missile-related or other weapons of mass destruction-related programmes or persons or entities acting on their behalf or at their direction, or entities owned or controlled by them, subject to restrictive measures". According to professor Yang Moo-jin of the

University of North Korean Studies The University of North Korean Studies () is a university in Seoul, South Korea, that was founded in 2005 by merging Kyungnam University's North Korean studies department founded in 1997 and the Far East Problems Research Centre (극동문제연� ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, Hong is "spearheading the nuclear development programme as a senior party official". North Korea expert Michael Madden calls Hong part of a last generation of "top-level officials ... who studied in the old communist world".

Works

References

External links

Photo
at the ''

Sunday Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Hong, Sung-mu Living people 1942 births Place of birth missing (living people) North Korean nuclear physicists 20th-century North Korean scientists 21st-century North Korean scientists Members of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea