North Korea confirmed Wednesday that an official who has overseen leader Kim Jong Un's pet construction projects has been named the nuclear-armed country's new defense minister.
The official Korean Central News Agency referred to army Gen. Kim Jong Gwan, who had been the North's vice defense chief, as the "minister of the People's Armed Forces" in a dispatch about a meeting on forest restoration and environmental protection.
Kim Jong Gwan succeeds No Kwang Chol, and is known for having supervised large-scale construction projects that have been repeatedly played up in state-run media by the North Korean leader. These include a sprawling beach resort in the eastern coastal city of Wonsan and hot spring facilities in the central alpine town of Yangdok.