Top North Korean negotiator dies

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

Kim Yang-gon was involved in North Korean politics for about thirty years, initially as an advisor to former leader Kim Jong-il and more recently as a senior aide growing ever closer to current leader Kim Jong-un.

When North and South Korea traded artillery fire in August, Mr Kim was part of a high-level delegation that helped ease a stand-off between the two countries.

North Korea also announced a list of Kim’s funeral committee members, which included Choe Ryong-hae, a senior secretary of the ruling party.

“This tells us a little about the changing nature of Kim Jong-un’s leadership, that his leadership is secure and that he’s confident about bringing back people who have failed in the past”.

And Kim had his powerful uncle Jang Song-thaek executed in December 2012 on charges of treason and corruption, allowing Choe to emerge as his right-hand man.

KCNA used very different language for Kim Yang Gon on Wednesday, characterizing him as a “closest comrade-in-arms and steadfast revolutionary comrade”. It said a state funeral will be held Thursday but gave no further details about his death.

South Korean intelligence officials had reportedly said that Choe was sent to the countryside for re-education.

In what might be a coincidence, Kim’s predecessor Kim Yong-sun also died in a traffic accident in 2003. “I’m puzzled. I’m extremely puzzled”.

Kim Yang-gon was credited with helping North Korea and South Korea avert conflict on several occasions.

Some of the North’s most promising party leaders have died in traffic accidents.

“There are nearly no cars and security for high-officials travelling in cars is extremely tight”. Yes they are known that they love to speed.

Kim Yang Gon had a long career working in worldwide and inter-Korean affairs for Pyongyang.

“However, there is another reason to be highly suspicious”. However, many previous announcements about traffic deaths involving officials have spawned rampant outside media speculations of possible state assassinations linked to fierce power struggles, and that Pyongyang had fabricated the cause of their deaths.

The KCNA’s report and obituary can be read here. North Korean soldiers are widely mobilised in construction projects in the heavily militarised state.