North Korea’s ex-ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam dies at 97, state media says

Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's former ceremonial head of state, has died at the age of 97, state media reported on Tuesday.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that Kim Yong-nam, former president of the Praesidium of Pyongyang's rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly from 1998 to 2019, died on Monday of multiple organ failure.

According to KCNA, North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, paid his condolescences at Kim Yong-nam's grave early on Tuesday. A state funeral will be held on Thursday, it reported.

The news agency described Kim Yong-nam as an "old-generation revolutionary who left extraordinary achievements in the development history of our party and country".

Born in 1928 into "a patriotic family" resisting then then-Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, Kim Yong-nam held a string of top posts since he joined the ruling Workers' Party in the mid-1950s, according to KCNA.

His tenure as head of North Korea’s parliament made him the country’s nominal head of state and he appeared frequently in state media greeting visiting foreign dignitaries.

But the true power was held by the Kim family, which maintains absolute control of North Korea’s 26 million people. Kim Yong-nam was not related to the ruling dynasty.

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. He is the third generation of his family to rule North Korea since its foundation in 1948.

Following years of increased hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, Kim Yong-nam featured prominently as North Korea sought improved relations with South Korea and the United States.

In February 2018, Kim Yong-nam and Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jong-un's powerful sister, visited their neighbours, South Korea, to attend the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

That PyeongChang trip made Kim Yong-nam the highest-level North Korean official to visit South Korea since 2014.

At the opening ceremony, he and Kim Yo-jong sat within feet of then-US Vice President Mike Pence, though the two sides made no apparent contact.

Kim Yong-nam was one of the rare high-ranking North Korean officials who was never disciplined, demoted or purged by the ruling Kim family during his political career.

Yet due to his advanced age, Kim Yong-nam's influence was perceived as diminishing in recent years.

He was replaced in April 2019 by Choe Ryong-hae, a close confidant of Kim Jong-un who had previously been the chief political officer of North Korea's military, which consists of 1.2 million members.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, a supporter of greater reconciliation with North Korea, expressed his condolences over Kim Yong-nam’s death.

“He contributed to opening South-North Korea dialogue by coming to South Korea as head of a North Korean delegation to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018,” Chung said in a statement.

“I also recall I had meaningful talks with him about peace on the Korean Peninsula and development of South-North Korea relations” during meetings in 2005 and 2018, both in Pyongyang, he added.