A top aide to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has died in a car crash, state news agency KCNA has said.<\/p>\n
Kim Yang-gon, 73, was a secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party and was in charge of ties with South Korea.<\/p>\n
He was part of a high-level delegation from North Korea that helped ease a stand-off with the South in August, after an exchange of artillery fire.<\/p>\n
The state news agency called him Kim Jong-un’s “closest comrade and a solid revolutionary partner”.<\/p>\n
“Comrade Kim Yang-gon, a Workers’ Party secretary and member of the party Central Committee Politbureau… died in a traffic accident at 6:15am, Tuesday, at age 73,” KCNA said, without giving details.<\/p>\n
It added that Kim Jong-un would lead an 80-member state funeral for Mr Kim on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Tension between North and South Korea increased in August when a border blast injured two South Korean soldiers.<\/p>\n
Meetings at that time eventually led to the two countries stepping away from a military confrontation.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A top aide to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has died in a car crash, state news agency KCNA has said. Kim Yang-gon, 73, was a secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party and was in charge of ties with South Korea. He was part of a high-level delegation from North Korea that helped ease […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":177986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[14],"yoast_head":"\n