Hyon Yong-chol (; January 11, 1949 – possibly executed April 30, 2015) was a North Korean general and

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) politician. He served as

Minister of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

from 2014 to 2015. In 2015, he was reportedly removed from his post.

Personal life and career

North Korean media have stated that Hyon was born in January 1949 and joined the military in 1966. Having served as a battalion commander, he was elected a delegate to the Supreme People's Assembly in 2009. Hyon was promoted to the rank of four-star general () alongside

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 ...

, Kim Kyong-hui, Kim Kyong-ok,

Choe Ryong-hae Choe Ryong-hae (; born 15 January 1950) is a North Korean politician and military officer who currently serves as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly and First Vice President of the State Affairs Commission, hol ...

, and

Choe Pu-il General Choe Pu-il (; born 6 March 1944) is a North Korean politician who served as head of North Korea's Ministry of Social Security (North Korea), Ministry of People's Security. Biography In April 1992, he was promoted to major general and to ...

in September 2010. He was on the national funeral committee in the wake of

Kim Jong Il Kim Jong Il (born Yuri Kim; 16 February 1941 or 1942 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second Supreme Leader (North Korean title), supreme leader of North Korea from Death and state funeral of Kim Il Sung, the de ...

's death in December 2011. Hyon was named as a member of the Central Committee of the

at the third party conference. In February 2012, Hyon received the Order of Kim Jong Il. Hyon was promoted to the rank of Vice Marshal () of the

KPA The pascal (symbol: Pa) is the unit of pressure in the International System of Units (SI). It is also used to quantify internal pressure, stress, Young's modulus, and ultimate tensile strength. The unit, named after Blaise Pascal, is an SI ...

in July 2012, two days after Chief of the General Staff Ri Yong-ho was relieved of his duties. It was initially unclear if Hyon would replace Ri as Chief of the General Staff, but this was confirmed a few days later. He was also identified as vice-chairman of the WPK Central Military Commission on 26 July 2012. Hyon was reportedly demoted to

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

in November 2012. On 31 March 2013, Hyon was made a

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...

alternate member, though he did not take Ri Yong-ho's former seat on the Politburo Presidium. He was transferred to command the 5th Army Corps in May 2013. He was called back to Pyongyang in June 2014 to serve as minister of the People's Armed Forces.

Ouster and rumoured execution

South Korea's National Intelligence Service initially reported on May 12, 2015, that Hyon was purged and publicly executed near the end of April 2015 at Kanggon Military Training Area near Pyongyang. It was reported that he was executed – with an

anti-aircraft gun Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-ba ...

– for insubordination and sleeping during formal military rallies, in particular during an event in late April 2015 attended by Kim Jong Un in which Hyon was captured on video napping. A report by

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

indicated that Hyon was accused of treason after he failed to carry out an order by Kim Jong Un, though the nature of this order was not specified. A top official stated that while executions take place for crimes of treason or subversion, Hyon was not among the executed. According to analysts interviewed by

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, while reassigning officials was commonplace in North Korea, the execution of a figure as close to Kim Jong Un as Hyon was surprising, and could give cause to concern for the country's stability. Hours after the initial report, South Korea's National Intelligence Service revised its statement, saying that although it has intelligence information suggesting that Hyon was executed, it had not been able to verify that. Doubts were raised because footage of Hyon was still being shown on North Korean television. He was also mentioned in the North Korean newspaper ''

Rodong Sinmun ''Rodong Sinmun'' (; ) is a North Korean official newspaper of record of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. It was first published on 1 November 1945, as ''Chŏngro'' (), serving as a communication channel for the North ...

'' the day he was supposed to have been executed. This would imply that he had been arrested and executed on the same day, which is unlikely. In July, official North Korea media named Pak Yong-sik as the armed forces minister, but did not report Hyon's removal. A South Korean spokesman said that reports of Hyon's execution should be taken as rumors until there was definitive evidence. In April 2015, the US-based Committee for Human Rights in Korea released satellite imagery showing a shooting range lined with anti-aircraft guns apparently primed for an execution last October. Tae Yong-ho, a North Korean diplomat who defected in August 2016 from the North Korean embassy in London, said that Hyon Yong-chol's execution was the result of wiretapped conversations at his home; and that wiretapping high-ranking officials has become the norm. As of June 2025, his rumoured execution has not been officially confirmed.

Awards and honors

The official portrait of Hyon illustrates Hyon wearing all the decorations awarded to him.

References

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hyon, Yong-chol 1949 births Possibly living people North Korean generals Defence ministers of North Korea Recipients of the Order of Kim Jong Il Purges in North Korea Alternate members of the 6th Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea Members of the 6th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea People from North Hamgyong Province