DPRK senior party official Kim Yang Gon killed in car accident

World Today

(FILES) – A file picture taken on November 29, 2007, Kim Yang-Gon, head the North’s ruling Workers Party’s unification front department, arrives at the inter-Korea transit office in Paju, near the demilitarized zone. Kim Yang-Gon, a top North Korean official in charge of ties with South Korea and reunification was killed in a traffic accident, Pyongyang’s state media said on December 29, 2015. AFP PHOTO/JUNG YEON-JE / AFP / JUNG YEON-JE
Published December 29, 2015 at 10:45 PM
Updated January 5, 2016 at 11:04 AM

Kim Yang Gon, a senior party official of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, was killed in a car crash Tuesday according to the news agency KCNA.

Kim Yang Gon, 73, served as director of the United Front Department and secretary of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

A state funeral committee has been set up, which is chaired by top leader Kim Jong Un.

A state funeral procession will be held Thursday morning.

He had been a member of the political bureau of the the WPK Central Committee since Feb. of 2015.

The DPRK state media spoke highly of the life of Kim Yang Gon, hailing him as a “loyal revolutionary warrior” of the DPRK’s late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and the “closest comrade-in-arms” of top leader Kim Jong Un.

Xinhua