Kim Yong Ju, the youthful brother of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung who was as soon as considered the nation’s No. 2 official earlier than his nephew was anointed as the subsequent ruler, has died, state media reported Wednesday.
North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, the grandson of Kim Il Sung, expressed “deep condolences” over the demise and despatched a condolence wreath, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
“Kim Yong Ju devotedly struggled to implement the (Workers’) Party’s lines and policies and made a contribution to accelerating socialist construction and developing the Korean-style state social system, while working at important posts of the party and the state for many years,” the KCNA dispatch stated.
The information report didn’t say precisely when Kim Yong Ju died. According to Seoul’s Unification Ministry, he was born in 1920, that means that he was both 100 or 101 on the time of his demise.
Three generations of the Kim household have dominated North Korea since Kim Il Sung established the nation in 1948. When Kim Il Sung died in 1994, his eldest son, Kim Jong Il, inherited energy. Kim Jong Un is the third and youngest son of Kim Jong Il and assumed energy upon his father’s demise in 2011.
During Kim Il Sung’s rule, many outdoors consultants seen Kim Yong Ju because the North’s second strongest official and even his brother’s inheritor obvious. He held a slew of high posts equivalent to director of the group and steerage division and member of the Politburo, each on the ruling Workers’ Party. In 1972, he represented North Korea in signing a landmark peace accord with South Korea, the rivals’ first main joint communique on unification.
Kim Yong Ju step by step pale from the political scene after Kim Jong Il took over his Workers’ Party division director put up in 1973, a transfer seen by outsiders as a key step within the path to succeeding Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong Il’s place as successor was made public at a celebration congress in 1980.
After practically 20 years of seclusion, Kim Yong Ju was made a vp and regained his Politburo membership in 1993. The appointment got here after Kim Jong Il had secured his standing as the subsequent chief, and consultants stated Kim Yong Ju didn’t wield substantial energy in key state affairs.
He later served as honorary vice-chairman of the standing committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the North’s rubberstamp parliament, and as a delegate to the Assembly. Before Wednesday’s report on his demise, his final recognized public exercise was in 2015, when state TV confirmed him bowing earlier than the portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il after casting a poll throughout native elections.
