Kim Yong-nam, who served as North Korea’s nominal head of state for more than two decades, was a unique political figure who survived three generations of dictatorship, evading the purges or demotions typical of the opaque elite of the communist regime.
Kim, who died on November 3 at the age of 97, was the “affable” public face of North Korea on the international stage, being the country’s second most powerful man as the president of Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly from 1998 to 2019.
He never lost favour with the ruling Kim dynasty which has controlled North Korea since 1948, serving the Kim family from founder Kim Il Sung to his son Kim Jong Il and his grandson Kim Jong Un.
Kim was born in 1928 to an “anti-Japanese patriotic family” in Pyongyang when the country was under Japanese colonial rule, according to North Korean state media. He went on to study at Kim Il Sung University and Moscow State University in Russia.
His political career spanned some 65 years after joining the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea in the mid-1950s. He worked as a speechwriter for Kim Il Sung and rose steadily through the ranks to become the country’s foreign minister in 1983, overseeing international relations for 15 years.
Kim became a role model of North Korean bureaucrats for his successful navigation of the country’s terror politics. Experts say his political longevity is mainly due to his strong loyalty to the Kim family, his prudence and discretion.
“If Kim Il-sung was pointing to a wall and said there is a door, Kim Yong Nam would believe that and try to go through it” wrote the American journalist Don Oberdorfer in his book The Two Koreas, quoting a former North Korean diplomat. Oberdorfer considered the former head of state “a puzzling figure. In greetings before business began, he was cordial and relaxed, but once at work, he relentlessly followed his script.”
Tae Yong-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to South Korea, attributes the longevity of Kim’s career to his strong political acumen. “He was a perfect model of regime survival,” Tae told a local CBS radio show in Seoul, praising Kim’s ability to read power shifts “at least ten years ahead”.
“Kim Yong Nam survived six decades at the centre of power without ever abusing it,” Tae said. “In North Korea, his way of survival remains a manual for how to endure [within the regime.]”
Kim helped to ensure smooth power transitions between each generation of the ruling dynasty. When Kim Jong Il died in 2011, he urged the country to rally around Kim Jong Un, proclaiming him to be the new “supreme leader of our party, military and people”.
“When Kim Jong Un first appeared in public, Kim Yong Nam was the first among the hesitant elders to bow 90 degrees, which led others to follow,” said Tae.
Kim was left intact in the purges of Kim Jong Un’s early rule, which culminated in the execution of the leader’s powerful uncle Jang Song Thaek in 2013.
As the country’s most recognised diplomat, Kim often welcomed foreign dignitaries in Pyongyang and led government delegations abroad. He communicated frequently with South Korean officials. South Korea’s current unification minister Chung Dong-young, a strong supporter of engagement with North Korea, said of Kim: “I had meaningful talks with him about peace on the Korean peninsula and development of inter-Korean relations” during meetings in Pyongyang in 2005 and 2018.
Kim’s last but most prominent diplomatic act came in 2018 at the age of 90, when he led the North Korean delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, along with Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of Kim Jong Un.
The trip made him the most senior North Korean official to visit South Korea, paving the way for Kim Jong Un’s meeting with the former South Korean President Moon Jae-in in 2018 and with US President Donald Trump in 2019.
His influence waned as he got older. He retired in 2019 and was replaced by Kim Jong Un’s close aide Choe Ryong-hae as head of North Korea’s parliament.
“He could stay in power for such a long time as he was the perfect man the Kim dynasty needed as the top manager,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at Sejong Institute, a think-tank in Seoul. “He didn’t have any enemies or close allies. He always obeyed the regime with unwavering loyalty and managed diplomatic affairs well, being well aware of what is going on outside North Korea.”