North Korea announced Wednesday that its most senior official in charge of inter-Korean relations died in a car accident.
Kim Yang-gon was head of the United Front Department of the ruling Korea Workers’ Party, a member of the North Korean Central Committee and alternate member of the Politburo. He had most recently negotiated with senior South Korean officials in August to defuse a crisis caused by a North Korean incursion into the demilitarized zone and exchange of artillery fire.
Kim Yang-gon’s demise raises suspicions that he was killed by the regime, particularly since several other officials over the years have suffered a similar end. But prior to his death, there were no indications that Kim was distrusted or in danger of being purged.
In addition to the August 2015 negotiations, he had also participated in a senior delegation that made a surprise visit to South Korea in October 2014. He had recently escorted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on inspection tours to military and civilian sites, suggesting that he remained a trusted aide.
His frequency of accompanying the leader had increased under Kim Jong-un’s reign as compared with the era of Kim Jong-il.
Parsing natural deaths from a forced demise among the senior leadership of North Korea is always difficult, particularly nowadays, given Kim Jong-un’s extensive purging.
