Senior official known for his loyalty to the Kim family served as head of Supreme People’s Assembly for two decades.
Published On 4 Nov 2025
Kim Yong Nam, the former nominal head of state of North Korea and a lifelong loyalist of the country’s ruling family, has died, according to state media.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday that the 97-year-old politician, who led the country’s parliament for more than two decades and served as a senior diplomat, died on Monday of multiple organ failure related to cancer.
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“Comrade Kim Yong-nam, an old-generation revolutionary who left extraordinary achievements in the development history of our party and country, wrapped up his noble life at age of 97,” the KCNA said.
KCNA said that leader Kim Jong Un visited the bier of Kim Yong Nam early on Tuesday to express deep condolences over his death. It said that Kim Yong Nam’s funeral had been scheduled for Thursday.
Kim Yong Nam, who was known for propaganda-filled speeches with a deep, booming voice at key state events, often appeared in state media visuals greeting visiting foreign dignitaries on behalf of Kim Jong Un and his late father, Kim Jong Il.
His loyalty to the ruling Kim dynasty allowed him to serve as the country’s ceremonial head of state for two decades.
Kim Yong Nam is not related to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – grandson of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung – who took power upon his father Kim Jong Il’s death in 2011.
Kim Yong Nam served as head of the Supreme People’s Assembly from 1998 to April 2019. The holder of that post is North Korea’s nominal head of state, though the true power has been held by the Kim family, which has ruled the country since its formal foundation in 1948.
In 1994, when Kim Il Sung died, Kim Yong Nam had read an elegy to the state’s founder. He also undertook the job of formally nominating Kim Jong Il to be chairman of the National Defence Commission after the son of Kim Il Sung observed a three-year mourning period.
In February 2018, he travelled to South Korea with Kim Jong Un’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympic Games, as Pyongyang sought better ties with Seoul and Washington after years of heightened animosities on the Korean Peninsula.
The trip made Kim Yong Nam the highest-level North Korean official to visit South Korea since Kim Jong Un sent a top military officer to attend the closing ceremony of the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
At the Pyeongchang opening ceremony, Kim Yong Nam and Kim Yo Jong sat within feet of then-United States Vice President Mike Pence, though the two sides made no apparent contact.
North Korea’s temporary diplomatic openness peaked with the summits between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019, but Kim Yong Nam did not attend them, and his influence is believed to have waned in recent years due to his age.
In April 2019, he was replaced as head of the parliament by Choe Ryong Hae, one of Kim Jong Un’s close confidants who had previously served as the top political officer of North Korea’s 1.2 million-member military.
A native of Pyongyang, Kim Yong Nam studied at Kim Il Sung University and Moscow State University.
