SEOUL, South Korea — 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 Tuesday.
The Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that Kim Yong Nam, former president of the Presidium of North Korea’s rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly, died 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 on Tuesday to express deep condolences over his death. It said Kim Yong Nam’s funeral was set 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, 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 traveled 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, South Korea.
At the Pyeongchang opening ceremony, Kim Yong Nam and Kim Yo Jong sat within feet of then-U.S. 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. In April 2019, he was replaced by Choe Ryong Hae, one of Kim Jong Un’s close confidants who had previously served as the top political officer of the North’s 1.2 million-member military.
Kim Yong Nam’s career epitomized that of a successful North Korean bureaucrat. He joined the ruling Workers’ Party shortly after the 1950-53 Korean War and survived major political purges through the 1970s. He was appointed to the powerful Politburo in 1978 and served 15 years as foreign minister, starting in 1983. During his tenure, the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union disintegrated, leaving North Korea isolated.
North Korea watchers also say Kim Yong Nam had an expertise in third-world diplomacy. He was a frequent participant in gatherings of nations that consider themselves independent from major power blocs, including the 2012 Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran.
People who met Kim Yong Nam described him as mild-mannered but staunch in his opinions.
“I found Kim Yong Nam a puzzling figure. In greetings before business began, he was cordial and relaxed, but once at work, he relentlessly followed his script in a way that reminded of former Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko,” former Washington Post reporter Don Oberdofer wrote in his book, “The Two Koreas.”
In a testament to his loyalty to the ruling dynasty, Kim Yong Nam read an elegy to Kim Il Sung when he died in 1994. Kim Yong Nam also undertook the job of formally nominating Kim Jong Il to be chairman of the National Defense Commission after the son observed a three-year mourning period.
A native of Pyongyang, Kim Yong Nam studied at Kim Il Sung University and Moscow State University.
