Hong Sung-mu

Hong Sung-mu
Born	(1942-01-01)1 January 1942
Nationality	North Korea
Known for	North Korea's weapons of mass destruction
Scientific career
Fields	Nuclear weapons research
Institutions	Machine Building Industry Department, Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center
Patrons	Kim Jong-un

Hong Sung-mu (Korean: 홍승무, born 1 January 1942) is a North Korean nuclear weapons scientist and a Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) official working with North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and space programs. He is the deputy director of the party's Machine Building Industry Department (MBID) and plays a key part in the country's nuclear weapons program.

Hong rose to prominence after the 2011 death of Kim Jong-il and succession of Kim Jong-un, after which he has supervised various weapons tests, including the 2013 and January 2016 North Korean nuclear tests. Hong's involvement in weapons development has landed him on international sanctions lists.

Hong was born on 1 January 1942. He was educated in Central and Eastern Europe, and possibly in the Soviet Union too.

Hong plays an important role in North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and space programs. While Hong's responsibility includes conventional weapons, his work focuses on the nuclear weapons program in particular.

Hong was formerly the chief engineer at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center. Currently he is the deputy director of the party's Machine Building Industry Department (MBID), where he has worked since the mid-2000s. Since 2010, he has been the number two man of Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) secretary Pak To-chun. Hong's background is in manufacture and production rather than development and research, as opposed to his superior in the MBID, Ju Kyu-chang.