K im Yang Gon, a senior government official and aide of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has died in a vehicle crash, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Wednesday.
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Kim, who was a secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party, was part of a delegation that produced a deal in talks that followed an exchange of artillery fire between the North and South earlier this year, Reuters reported.
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Impoverished North Korea’s road network is badly maintained and auto ownership is rare.
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In 2003, a predecessor to Kim Yang-Gon died in a traffic accident and in 2010 top official Ri Je-Gang also died in a auto crash.
News of Kim Yang-Gon’s death sparked speculation that his sudden demise might be the result of political foul play, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.
A Unification Ministry official in Seoul said Thursday that Kim’s speech is likely to focus on such preparations as Pyongyang is set to hold the event next May.
“In light of the North’s nature, I don’t see anyone who can replace him in his role in daring to offer policy ideas and advice to the leader in these fields”, he said. “Kim Yang-gon was not known for having a particular position on what he did”.
Choe, a vice marshal who was once considered number-two in the Stalinist state next to Kim himself, was purged last month and sent to a farm for “re-education”, according to South Korea’s spy agency.
High-level inter-Korean talks collapsed earlier this month, representing another test for Seoul and Pyongyang in a series of challenges since the Korean War reached a ceasefire in 1953.
South Korean National Security Adviser Kim Kwan-jin (front right) shakes hands with Kim Yang Gon after high-level talks between North and South Korea on August 25.
South Korean intelligence officials had reportedly said that Choe was sent to the countryside for re-education. “If this safe pair of hands is no longer able to negotiate with South Korea, there is some speculation this may give more space to more hard-line voices in the North to have influence over the leadership”.
The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
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Reports in May said that North Korean defense minister Hyon Yong-chol was publicly executed, possibly by an anti-aircraft gun, on April 30 for disloyalty to Kim Jong-un.
