Kim Yong Nam, North Korea’s former ceremonial head of state and a lifelong supporter of the ruling dynasty, has died aged 97, according to state media.
He held the role of president of Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly from 1998 to 2019.
Kim Yong Nam served in various diplomatic roles under the regime of the country’s founder Kim Il Sung, his son Kim Jong Il, and his grandson Kim Jong Un, although he was not related to the family.
He died of multiple organ failure on 3 November, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The agency described him as an “old-generation revolutionary who left extraordinary achievements in the development history of our party and country”. A state funeral has been held for him.
Kim Yong Nam was born when the Korean peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule, into what KCNA called a family of “anti-Japanese patriots”. He attended the then brand new Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang and also studied in Moscow, before beginning his career in the 1950s.
Starting out as a low-ranking official in the ruling party, he rose to become foreign minister and then served as chairman of the Supreme People’s Assembly for nearly all of Kim Jong Il’s reign.
Even as real power remained in the hands of the ruling Kim family, Kim Yong Nam was often seen as the face of North Korea on the international stage.
In 2018, he led a North Korean delegation to South Korea during the Winter Olympics, where he met the South’s then-president Moon Jae-in.
Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s influential sister, was part of the delegation.
Kim Yong Nam also previously met two other former South Korean presidents: Kim Dae-jung in 2000, and Roh Moo-hyun in 2007 – on both occasions, at inter-Korean summits respectively.
South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young offered condolences, saying he had “meaningful conversations about peace in the Korean peninsula” with Kim Yong Nam.
Former North Korean diplomat Thae Yong Ho, who has since resettled in the South, told the BBC that Kim Yong Nam never uttered a word that was regarded as problematic by the regime.
“[He] never made his own opinions known… He had no close [allies] or enemies. He never showed any creativity. He never put out a new policy. He only repeated what the Kim family have said before,” said Thae, who was most recently the leader of South Korea’s presidential advisory council on unification.
“Kim Yong Nam is the perfect role model of how to survive for a long time in North Korea,” Thae said, adding that he avoided criticism from within the party by maintaining a “clean” reputation.
Unlike many other high-ranking officials in the North, Kim Yong Nam was never demoted even as power was handed down through three generations of the Kim family clan. He retired in April 2019.
His longevity was rare as many other officials have been purged, sent to labour camps, or even killed if deemed to have acted against the state’s policies.
For example, Kim Jong Un ordered the execution of his uncle Chang Song Thaek in 2013 for “acts of treachery”, state media reported then.
Additional reporting by Lee Hyun Choi in Seoul
