SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Yong Nam, a longtime North Korean ceremonial head of state finest recognized for his trademark propaganda-filled speeches with a deep, booming voice in assist of the ruling Kim dynasty, has died, state media reported Tuesday.

The Korean Central Information Company stated that Kim Yong Nam, former president of the Presidium of North Korea’s rubber-stamp Supreme Individuals’s Meeting from 1998 to 2019, died Monday of a number of organ failure on the age of 97.

KCNA stated that chief Kim Jong Un visited the bier of Kim Yong Nam early Tuesday to specific deep condolences over his demise. Kim Yong Nam isn’t associated to Kim Jong Un, the third era of his household to rule North Korea since its basis in 1948.

“Comrade Kim Yong Nam faithfully upheld the get together’s ideology and management and displayed his distinctive competence and expertise on the worldwide stage, making notable contributions within the historical past of our nation’s politics and diplomacy,” KCNA stated.

KCNA stated North Korea will maintain a state funeral for him on Thursday. It launched an inventory of 100 funeral committee members with Kim Jong Un’s identify on the prime.

Born in 1928 into “a patriotic household” resisting then Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, Kim Yong Nam held a string of prime posts since he joined the ruling Staff’ Occasion within the mid-Fifties, in keeping with KCNA. His tenure as head of North Korea’s parliament made him the nation’s nominal head of state and allowed him to seem steadily in state media greeting visiting international dignitaries.

However the true energy was held by the Kim household, which maintains absolute management of North Korea’s 26 million folks. Kim Jong Un, grandson of state founder Kim Il Sung, took energy upon his father Kim Jong Il’s demise in 2011 within the nation’s second hereditary energy switch.

In February 2018, Kim Yong Nam traveled to South Korea with Kim Jong Un’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics as North Korea sought higher ties with South Korea and the U.S. after years of heightened animosities on the Korean Peninsula. On the opening ceremony, Kim Yong Nam and Kim Yo Jong sat inside toes of then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, although the 2 sides made no obvious contact.

That Pyeongchang journey made Kim Yong Nam the highest-level North Korean official to go to South Korea since 2014. North Korea’s non permanent diplomatic openness peaked when Kim Jong Un met U.S. President Donald Trump 3 times from 2018-19, earlier than the high-stakes summitry collapsed resulting from wrangling over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea. Trump lately expressed his need to satisfy Kim Jong Un once more throughout his journey to South Korea final week, however North Korea did not reply.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, a supporter of larger reconciliation with North Korea, expressed his condolences over Kim Yong Nam’s demise.

“He contributed to opening South-North Korea dialogue by coming to South Korea as head of a North Korean delegation to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018,” Chung stated in a press release. “I additionally recall I had significant talks with him about peace on the Korean Peninsula and improvement of South-North Korea relations” throughout conferences in 2005 and 2018, each in Pyongyang.

Kim Yong Nam’s affect was seen as waning resulting from his age. In April 2019, he was changed by Choe Ryong Hae, considered one of Kim Jong Un’s shut confidants who had beforehand served as the highest political officer of North Korea’s 1.2 million-member navy.

Kim Yong Nam’s profession epitomized that of a profitable North Korean bureaucrat. He survived main political purges by way of the Seventies. He was appointed to the highly effective Politburo in 1978 and served 15 years as international minister, beginning in 1983. He was left intact even when Kim Jong Un orchestrated a collection of purges and executions, together with the spectacular 2013 killing of his highly effective uncle, within the early years of his rule in an obvious bid to take away his potential rivals from the previous guard.

North Korea watchers additionally say Kim Yong Nam had an experience in third-world diplomacy. He was a frequent participant in gatherings of countries that contemplate themselves impartial from main energy blocs, together with the 2012 Non-Aligned Motion summit in Iran.

Individuals who met Kim Yong Nam described him as mild-mannered however staunch in his opinions.

“I discovered Kim Yong Nam a puzzling determine. In greetings earlier than enterprise started, he was cordial and relaxed, however as soon as at work, he relentlessly adopted his script in a means that reminded of former Soviet international minister Andrei Gromyko,” former Washington Publish reporter Don Oberdofer wrote in his guide, “The Two Koreas.”

In a testomony to his loyalty to the ruling dynasty, Kim Yong Nam learn an elegy to Kim Il Sung when he died in 1994. Kim Yong Nam additionally undertook the job of formally nominating Kim Jong Il to be chairman of the Nationwide Protection Fee after the son noticed a three-year mourning interval.

A local of Pyongyang, Kim Yong Nam studied at Kim Il Sung College and Moscow State College.

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Former Related Press author Sam Kim contributed to this report.