One of the last surviving members of North Korea's first generation of leaders, Ri Ul-sol, has passed away after battling lung cancer.
 
The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency said Ri passed away Saturday morning at the age of 94.
 
North Korea plans to hold a state funeral for Ri and has composed a funeral committee headed by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
 
Some of the North's highest officials included in the 170-member committee are: Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of North Korea; Hwang Pyong-so, director of the Korean People's Army (KPA) General Political Bureau, Premier Pak Pong-ju, Workers' Party secretaries Kim Ki-nam and Choe Tae-bok, defense minister Park Yong-sik and Ri Yong-gil, chief of the General Staff of the KPA.
 
Born in 1921, Ri was an anti-Japanese partisan fighter alongside North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung during the colonial period. He served as chief of staff of the North Korean army's fourth division during the Korean War, later headed Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il's security service and was named marshal of the KPA in 1995.
 
Except for the Kim leadership, Ri was the last remaining and one of only three marshals named by the North.
 
Ri's body has been laid at the Central Hall of Workers in Pyongyang and mourners have been allowed to pay condolences from Sunday afternoon.