Kim Yong-nam, North Korea’s purely ceremonial former head of state and longtime supporter of the ruling dynasty, has died at age 97. The announcement was made this Tuesday by the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and the death occurred on the 3rd, due to multiple organ failure.
Kim held the position of President of the Supreme People’s Assembly of Pyongyang, a body without real power, from 1998 to 2019. In recent decades, he performed several diplomatic functions under the regime of the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung, his son Kim Jong-il and his grandson, the current North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, although he was not a member of the family.
KCNA described him as a “old guard revolutionary who left extraordinary achievements in the history of the development of our party and our country”. As a sign of the respect that this most “decorative” figure deserved in North Korea, he will be entitled to a state funeral.
Born on February 4, 1928, when the Korean peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule, Kim Yong-nam grew up in what KCNA, cited by the BBC, called a family of “anti-Japanese patriots.” He attended the recently opened Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang and also studied in Moscow, before beginning his career in the 1950s.
A low-level official in the ruling party, Kim first rose to the position of foreign minister and was then president of the Supreme People’s Assembly during almost the entire reign of Kim Jong Il.
Even with the real power well guarded in the hands of the Kim family, Kim Yong-nam was often seen as the face of North Korea on the international stage. Like when in 2018 he led the North Korean delegation to South Korea for the Winter Olympics, having met with then South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Before that, he had already met with two other former South Korean presidents: Kim Dae-jung in 2000 and Roh Moo-hyun in 2007 — both at inter-Korean summits.
Unlike many other senior North Korean officials, Kim Yong-nam was never removed, even with the transfer of power through three generations of the Kim dynasty. Withdrew in April 2019.
His longevity was rare, as many other officials were purged, sent to labor camps or even killed for acting against state policies. In 2013, for example, Kim Jong-un ordered the execution of his uncle Chang Song-thaek for “acts of treason”.