Pak To Chun, North Korea’s chief operating officer of its conventional and advanced weapons programs, has not made any reported or observed public appearances since early May.

Pak accompanied Kim Jong Un to a sports competition between public health workers on or around May 1, then slipped from the state media’s radar.

However, Pak’s absence was rather unremarkable because senior North Korean officials periodically slip away. His disappearance occurred during a period in which other members of the Korean Workers’ Party Secretariat such as Kim Phyong Hae and Kwak Pom Gi also did not make any public appearances; however, these