SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea’s longtime ceremonial leader Kim Yong Nam, best known for his trademark propaganda-filled speeches in which he voiced deep support for the ruling Kim dynasty, has died, state media said Tuesday.
Kim Yong Nam, the former presidium chairman of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly from 1998 to 2019, died on Monday of multiple organ failure at the age of 97, the Korean Central News Agency reported.
KCNA reported that leader Kim Jong Un visited Kim Jong Nam’s asylum early Tuesday to express his deepest condolences over his death. Kim Yong Nam is not related to Kim Jong Un, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea since its founding in 1948.
“Comrade Kim Yong Nam has faithfully supported the party’s ideology and leadership and demonstrated his outstanding competence and experience in the international arena, making significant contributions to the history of our country’s politics and diplomacy,” KCNA said.
KCNA reported that North Korea will hold a state funeral for him on Thursday. She posted a list of 100 funeral committee members with Kim Jong Un’s name at the top.
Ceremonial head of state for 2 decades
According to KCNA, in 1928 born into a “patriotic family” opposed to the then Japanese colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, Kim Yong Nam has held a series of top posts since joining the ruling Workers’ Party in the mid-1950s. As head of North Korea’s parliament, he became the country’s nominal head of state and allowed him to appear frequently on state media greeting visiting foreign dignitaries.
But the real power rests with the Kim family, which maintains absolute control over North Korea’s 26 million people. Kim Jong Un, the grandson of the country’s founder Kim Il Sung, took power after the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011. during the second hereditary transfer of power in the country.
in 2018 In February, Kim Yong Nam, along with Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong, traveled to South Korea to attend the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics as North Korea sought better ties with South Korea and the United States after years of hostility on the Korean Peninsula. At the opening ceremony, Kim Yong Nam and Kim Yo Jong sat within feet of then-US Vice President Mike Pence, though the two sides made no apparent contact.
The trip made Pyongyang’s Kim Yong Nam the highest-level North Korean official to visit South Korea since 2014. North Korea’s temporary diplomatic openness reached its peak when Kim Jong Un in 2018-2019. met U.S. President Donald Trump three times before the Korea summit collapsed amid disputes over U.S.-led sanctions. Trump recently expressed his desire to meet again with Kim Jong Un during his trip to South Korea last week, but North Korea has not responded.
South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, an advocate of greater reconciliation with North Korea, expressed condolences over Kim Yong Nam’s death.
“He was instrumental in starting the dialogue between South and North Korea by coming to South Korea as the head of the North Korean delegation to the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics,” Chung said in a statement. “I also remember having meaningful conversations with him about peace on the Korean Peninsula and the development of relations between South and North Korea” during meetings in 2005 and 2018. in Pyongyang.
Kim Yong Nam’s influence is believed to be waning due to his age. in 2019 he was replaced in April by Choe Ryong Hae, a close confidant of Kim Jong Un who previously served as the top political officer in North Korea’s 1.2 million-strong military.
The quintessential bureaucrat
Kim Yong Nam’s career has been the epitome of a successful North Korean bureaucrat. It went through major political purges in the 1970s. in 1978 he was appointed to the powerful Politburo and served as Foreign Minister for 15 years, beginning in 1983. It remained intact even as Kim Jong Un carried out a series of purges and executions in his first year in power, including the spectacular assassination of his powerful uncle in 2013, in an apparent bid to remove his old guard.
North Korea watchers also say Kim Yong Nam had experience in Third World diplomacy. He has been a frequent participant in gatherings of nations that consider themselves independent of major power blocs, including in 2012.
People who met Kim Yong Nam described him as soft-spoken but firm in his opinions.
“I found Kim Yong Nam to be an enigmatic figure. Before he started business, he was sincere and relaxed, but at work he ruthlessly followed his script in a way that reminded me of former Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko,” former Washington Post reporter Don Oberdofer wrote in his book “Two Koreas.”
Proving his loyalty to the ruling dynasty, Kim Yong Nam read an elegy for Kim Il Sung when he died in 1994. Kim Yong Nam also took it upon himself to officially appoint Kim Jong Il as chairman of the National Defense Commission, following a three-year mourning period for his son.
Kim Yong Nam, originally from Pyongyang, studied at Kim Il Sung University and Moscow State University.
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Former Associated Press writer Sam Kim contributed to this report.