Seoul: Kim Yong Nam, a quintessential North Korean bureaucrat whose lifelong loyalty to the ruling 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 said Kim Yong Nam, former president of the Presidium of North Korea’s rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly, died on Monday of multiple organ failure at the age of 97.
KCNA said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the bier of Kim Yong Nam to express deep condolences over his death. It said Kim Yong Nam’s funeral was set for Thursday.
Kim Yong Nam was not related to Kim Jong Un, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea. Kim Jong Un, grandson of state founder Kim Il Sung, took power upon his father
Kim Jong Il’s death in 2011 in the country’s second hereditary power transfer.
Kim Yong Nam served as head of the Supreme People’s Assembly from 1998 to April 2019.
That post is North Korea’s nominal head of state, though the true power was held by the Kim family that has ruled the North since its formal foundation in 1948.
Kim Yong Nam, who was known for propaganda-filled speeches with a deep, booming voice at key state events, often appeared in state media greeting visiting foreign dignitaries on behalf of Kim Jong Un and his late father Kim Jong Il.
In February 2018, he travelled to South Korea with Kim Jong Un’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics as Pyongyang sought better ties with Seoul and Washington after years of heightened animosities on the Korean Peninsula.
The trip made Kim Yong Nam the highest-level North Korean official to visit South Korea since Kim Jong Un sent a top military officer to attend the closing ceremony of the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.
At the Pyeongchang 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.
North Korea’s temporary diplomatic openness peaked with the summits between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019, but Kim Yong
Nam did not attend them and his influence was seen as waning due to his age.