Rim Kwang-il ( ko, 림광일; born 1965) 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 shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

n general and politician who served as

Chief Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...

of the General Staff Department of the

Korean People's Army The Korean People's Army (KPA; ) is the military force of North Korea and the armed wing of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). Under the ''Songun'' policy, it is the central institution of North Korean society. Currently, WPK General Sec ...

Biography

In January 2016, he was appointed as the 1st Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army and the Director-General of Operations Department, succeeding

Kim Chun-sam Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese f ...

. He was promoted to First Deputy Director-General of the General Staff Reconnaissance General Bureau in 2017 and was promoted to

Colonel general Colonel general is a three- or four-star military rank used in some armies. It is particularly associated with Germany, where historically general officer ranks were one grade lower than in the Commonwealth and the United States, and was a ra ...

in April of the same year. At the 5th Plenary Session of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea held in December 2019, he was elected as a member of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and appointed as Director General of the Reconnaissance General Bureau to succeed Jang Gil-sung. Afterwards, he was promoted to a rank in the Korean People's Army and was elected a member of the Party Central Military Commission. In 2020, he was promoted to general of the Korean People's Army, and in 2021 he was appointed a candidate member of the Politburo of the Party Central Committee, and in September he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army. In 2015, he served as a member of the funeral committee at the time of the death of Ri Eul-Seol and Kim Yang-Gun.
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References

{{North Korean generals Members of the Supreme People's Assembly Workers' Party of Korea politicians Members of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Members of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea North Korean generals ko:림광일