North Korea has named an official believed to be a senior rail official as its vice premier, the country’s state news agency said Thursday, the latest in a series of personnel reshuffle in the communist country.

North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament issued a decree last Thursday that Rim Chol-ung, 52, who served as a senior railways ministry official, was appointed as vice premier, the Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch.

The dispatch did not give any further details.

Rim’s appointment brought to six the number of its vice premiers. Three vice premiers are in their 40s and 50s, and the other three are in their 60s. Vice Premier and Agriculture Minister Ri Chol-man, 46, is the youngest among the six.

The development illustrated a generational change underway in North Korea since Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his early 30s, took over the communist country in 2011 after the sudden death of his father and long-time leader Kim Jong-il. (Yonhap)