It has been a busy seven-plus months for North Korea watchers – between Kim Jong Il’s death and funeral, the April Party Conference and SPA meeting, as well as nuclear negotiations and the failed rocket launch, there’s been plenty to speculate about. Now comes news that Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho, Chief of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) General Staff, a member of the Presidium of the Politburo, as well as a Vice Chairman in the Central Military Commission (CMC), has been removed from all posts due to “illness.”  What do we know about Ri and what does his dismissal