Picture of the Day: North Korea’s New Point Man for Cross-Border Relations

This file photo shows North Korea’s Gen. Kim Yong-chol, whom some specialists in South Korea believe has been tapped as the country’s new point man for handling cross-border affairs. A report written by the Youido Institute, a think tank of the ruling party, said on Jan. 18, 2016, that Kim is likely to succeed Kim Yang-gon, who died in a car accident in December, as the secretary of the North’s Workers’ Party in charge of inter-Korean issues. The general, who leads the party’s intelligence operations bureau, is known as the man who masterminded major provocations against the South, including the sinking of a naval ship, shelling attack on a border island and the planting of land mines to hurt South Korean soldiers. (Yonhap)