N. Korea says top official killed in car accident, fueling rumors
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's top official in charge of relations with South Korea has died in a traffic accident, the country's state media announced Wednesday, potentially dimming the prospect for ties between the rival countries. He was 73.
Kim Yang Gon, head of the United Front Department at the ruling Workers' Party, died Tuesday morning, the Korean Central News Agency reported. It said a state funeral will be held Thursday but gave no further details about his death.
While North Korea's road conditions are poor, the lack of detail helped feed speculation in South Korean media that Kim's death was suspicious, though South Korean officials declined to comment. Similar speculation arose in past years following reported traffic deaths of high-level North Korean officials. It's almost impossible to verify what is exactly happening among the North's secretive, authoritarian ruling elite.
Before his death, there had been no signs that Kim Yang Gon was engaged in any major factional feuding with other officials. He was among officials who most frequently accompanied Kim Jong Un during his inspection visits to army units and factories, a strong indication that he was one of the leader's trusted aides.
Wednesday's KCNA dispatch described him as the leader's "closest comrade-in-arms and steadfast revolutionary comrade" who had made "dedicated" efforts to push for unification with South Korea.
Analysts in Seoul say strained ties between the rival Koreas could continue following the unexpected death of Kim, who had long handled relations with South Korea. KCNA did not say who would replace him. Earlier this month, the rival Koreas ended rare high-level talks without any agreement.
"I worry that we cannot avoid long suspension of a dialogue between South and North Korea" following Kim's death, said Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea.
In August, Kim Yang Gon attended marathon talks at the Korean border that defused a military standoff trigged by land mine explosions blamed on North Korea that maimed two South Korean soldiers. The two Koreas subsequently resumed their first reunions of families separated by war since early 2014, but hopes of improved ties subsided after this month's inter-Korean talks failed to reach any breakthrough.
South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo sent condolences Wednesday, according to Hong's ministry. South Korea has previously offered similar condolences when senior North Korean officials died.
Kim Yang Gon visited South Korea in 2009 to pay his respects to late President Kim Dae-jung, who held the first inter-Korean summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000. He was believed to have played a key role in arranging a second summit in 2007. Most rapprochement agreements signed after the two summit talks remain stalled or have never been implemented after animosities flared again between the rivals.
The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
A list of people forming Kim Yang Gon's funeral committee includes Choe Ryong Hae, another close associate of Kim Jong Un who South Korea's National Intelligence Service said last month was banished to a rural collective farm for re-education. The spy agency, which has a mixed record on tracking North Korea, said Wednesday it was trying to check details about Choe.
Choe's reported banishment had been seen as the latest in a series of executions, purges and dismissals that Kim Jong Un has orchestrated in what outside analysts say was a further strengthening of his grip on power.
Kim is not the only senior North Korean official reported to have died in a car accident. While information in the secretive, authoritarian state is often impossible to confirm, outside observers use the officials' reported feuding with their political opponents to guess who might have been behind their demise. They also speculate the officials might have been driving after overnight drinking parties.
Here is a look at past high-profile, mysterious car accidents in North Korea:
- June 3, 2010: KCNA says Ri Je Gang, first vice department director of the Workers' Party's Central Committee, died in a traffic accident at age 80 the previous day. Ri reportedly bickered with Jang Song Thaek, a powerful uncle of Kim Jong Un, who was eventually executed by his nephew for alleged treason in 2013.
- Dec. 26, 2009: KCNA says Ri Chol Bong, chief secretary of the Workers' Party's Kangwon provincial committee, died in a traffic accident at age 78 the previous day. There was little speculation on Ri, who was relatively little known to outsiders.
- September 2006: Years before he was executed, Jang survived a car accident, according to South Korean media reports. Foreign analysts believe Jang was sent to a labor camp for two years in the mid-2000s in what was seen as a move by then-leader Kim Jong Il, the late father of Kim Jong Un, to clip his wings.
- October 2003: KCNA reports Kim Yong Sun, a senior North Korean official involved in reconciliation efforts with South Korea, died of injuries sustained in a traffic accident four months earlier. Kim Yong Sun was a close aide to Kim Jong Il. But Kim Jong Il's military, which traditionally favors a hard-line stance on South Korea, had reportedly tried to hold him in check. Kim Yong Sun was the only senior North Korean official who sat in at the historic summit between Kim Jong Il and then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in 2000.