Seoul, South Korea
AP
—
Kim Yong-nam, a typical North Korean bureaucrat whose lifelong loyalty to the Kim dynasty allowed him to serve as the country’s ceremonial head of state for two decades, has died, state media reported on Tuesday.
The Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday that Kim Yong-nam, former chairman of the Standing Committee of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, died on Monday at the age of 97 from multiple organ failure.
KCNA reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Kim Yong Nam’s ossuary on Tuesday and expressed his deep condolences over Kim Yong Nam’s death. It was announced that Kim Young-nam’s funeral is scheduled for Thursday.
Kim Yong-nam is not related to Kim Jong-un, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea. Kim Jong Un, the grandson of the nation’s founder Kim Il Sung, took over power in the country’s second hereditary succession following the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011.
Kim Yong-nam served as Chairman of the Supreme People’s Assembly from 1998 to April 2019. Although the post is North Korea’s nominal head of state, real power has been held by the Kim family, which has ruled North Korea since its formal founding in 1948.
Kim Yong-nam, known for delivering deep, propaganda-filled speeches at important state events, frequently appears on state media on behalf of Kim Jong-un and his late father, Kim Jong-il, and greets visiting foreign dignitaries.
In February 2018, he traveled to South Korea to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics with Kim Jong Un’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, as North Korea seeks to improve relations with Seoul and Washington after years of growing hostility on the peninsula.
With this visit, Kim Yong-nam becomes the highest-level North Korean official to visit South Korea since Kim Jong-un sent military leaders to attend the closing ceremony of the Asian Games held in Incheon, South Korea in 2014.
At the Pyeongchang opening ceremony, Kim Young-nam and Kim Yo-jong sat within meters of then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, but there was no apparent contact between the two.
North Korea’s temporary diplomatic opening peaked in 2018 and 2019 with summits between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, but Kim Yong Nam did not attend the summit and was seen as having diminished influence due to his age. In April 2019, he was replaced by Choe Ryong Hae, one of Kim Jong Un’s closest aides and previously the chief political officer of North Korea’s 1.2 million-strong military.
Kim Yong-nam’s career was typical of a successful North Korean bureaucrat. He joined the ruling Labor Party shortly after the 1950-1953 Korean War and survived the major political purges of the 1970s. He was appointed to the powerful Politburo in 1978 and served as Foreign Minister for 15 years from 1983. During his tenure, the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union collapsed, and North Korea became isolated.
North Korea watchers also say Kim Yong-nam had expertise in Third World diplomacy. He frequently participated in gatherings of countries that considered themselves independent from the main blocs, such as the 2012 Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran.
People who met with Kim Yong-nam described him as gentle but firm in his opinions.
“I found Kim Young-nam an enigmatic figure. In his pre-work greetings, he was sincere and relaxed, but once he got to work, he doggedly followed the script in a way that reminded me of former Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko,” former Washington Post reporter Don Oberdorfer wrote in his book “Two Joseons.”
Kim Yong-nam recited a dirge upon President Kim Il-sung’s death in 1994 as proof of his loyalty to the dynasty. Kim Yong-nam also took on the task of formally appointing Kim Jong-il as the chairman of the National Defense Commission after Kim Jong-il completed his three-year mourning period.
Kim Yong-nam, a Pyongyang native, studied at Kim Il Sung University and Moscow State University.
