Top North Korean aide dies in auto crash

Kim Yang Gon, a known North Korean official tasked with maintaining the hard relationship with South Korea, has died in an automobile accident, as per the state media.

The North’s leader Kim Jong Un has dismissed a string of aides in top positions since he took over when his father died suddenly in 2011.

North Korea’s top official in charge of relations with South Korea has died in a vehicle accident at age 73.

South Korean analysts believe that seasoned policy aides like Kim Yang Gon served as a calming voice for the young Kim Jong Un, advising him on when to employ gestures of reconciliation and when to use brinkmanship and saber rattling to shore up his leadership image in the highly militarised country.

But subsequent talks this month ended with little progress in resolving issues such as that of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, and the resumption of cross-border tours to the North’s scenic Mount Kumgang.

“Given that Kim has been spearheading inter-Korean affairs since the Kim Jong-il era (began), his abrupt death could inevitably lead to a lengthy pause in cross-border dialogue”, said Chong Seong-chang, head of unification strategy research at the Sejong Institute.

Three tops officials were killed in auto crashes during the reign of Kim Jong-Il. A state funeral will be held today for him but no further details have been given about how he died.

But he noted that “traffic accidents are very uncommon” in North Korea.

KCNA said Kim was Kim Jong-Un’s “closest comrade, a solid revolutionary partner” and that the secretive state’s leader would head an 80-member state funeral on Thursday. He made an unexpected visit to South Korea in October 2014, at the end of the Asian Games in Incheon, along with Hwang Pyong So and Choe Ryong Hae and held impromptu talks with South Korean officials.

Park, who helped secure the release of two American journalists detained in North Korea in 2009, said he doubted that there had been any disagreement between Kim Yang Gon and Kim Jong Un.

Ri Je-Gang, another top party official, also reportedly died in a auto crash in 2010 at a time when he was rumoured to be involved in a power struggle with Jang Song-Thaek.

“North Korea has a long track record of suspicious deaths around high-level officials”, North Korea expert Andrei Lankov told Reuters.