North Korean state media says top official for South Korea relations dies in car accident Dec 30, 2015

FILE - In this Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014
file photo, North Korea’s ruling
Workers Party Secretaries, Kim Yang
Gon, center, and Choe Ryong Hae,
right, leave after a meeting with
South Korean officials at a hotel in
Incheon, South Korea. Kim, North
Korea's top official in charge of
relations with South Korea has died
in a car accident, the country's state
media announced Wednesday, Dec.
30, 2015. He was 73. A list of
people forming Kim Yang Gon's
funeral committee includes Choe,
another close associate of Kim Jong
Un who South Korea's spy agency
said last month was banished to a
rural collective farm for re-education.
(AP Photo/Yonhap, Yun Tae-hyun,
File) KOREA OUT
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North
Korea's top official in charge of
relations with South Korea has died
in a traffic accident, the country's
state media announced Wednesday,
potentially dimming the prospect for
ties between the rival countries. He
was 73.
Kim Yang Gon, head of the United
Front Department at the ruling
Workers' Party, died Tuesday
morning, the Korean Central News
Agency reported. It said a state
funeral will be held Thursday for him
but gave no further details about his
death.
While North Korea's road conditions
are poor, the lack of detail helped
feed speculation in South Korean
media that Kim's death was
suspicious, though South Korean
officials declined to comment.
Similar speculation arose in past
years following reported traffic
deaths of high-level North Korean
officials. It's almost impossible to
verify what is exactly happening
among the secretive, authoritarian
North's ruling elite.
Before his death, there had been no
signs that Kim Yang Gon was
engaged in any major factional
feuding with other officials. He was
among officials who most frequently
accompanied Kim Jong Un during
his inspection visits to army units
and factories, a strong indication that
he was one of the leader's trusted
aides.
Wednesday's KCNA dispatch
described him as the leader's
"closest comrade-in-arms and
steadfast revolutionary comrade" who
had made "dedicated" efforts to push
for unification with South Korea.
Analysts in Seoul say strained ties
between the rival Koreas could
continue following the unexpected
death of Kim, who had long handled
relations with South Korea. The
KCNA did not say who would replace
him. Earlier this month, the rival
Koreas ended rare high-level talks
without any agreement.
"I worry that we cannot avoid long
suspension of a dialogue between
South and North Korea" following
Kim's death, said Cheong Seong-
chang, at the private Sejong Institute
in South Korea.In August, Kim Yang Gon attended

marathon talks at the Korean border
that defused a military standoff
trigged by land mine explosions
blamed on Pyongyang that maimed
two South Korean soldiers. The two
Koreas subsequently resumed their
first reunions of families separated
by war since early 2014, but hopes
of improved ties subsided after this
month's inter-Korean talks failed to
reach any breakthrough.
South Korea's Unification Minister
Hong Yong-pyo sent condolences
Wednesday, according to Hong's
ministry. South Korea has previously
offered similar condolences when
senior North Korean officials died.
Kim Yang Gon visited South Korea in
2009 to pay his respects to late
President Kim Dae-jung, who held the
first inter-Korean summit with Kim
Jong Il in 2000. He was believed to
have played a key role in arranging a
second summit in 2007. Most
rapprochement agreements signed
after the two summit talks remain
stalled or have never been
implemented after animosities flared
again between the rivals.
The Korean Peninsula remains in a
technical state of war since the
1950-53 Korean War ended with an
armistice, not a peace treaty.
A list of people forming Kim Yang
Gon's funeral committee includes
Choe Ryong Hae, another close
associate of Kim Jong Un who South
Korea's National Intelligence Service
said last month was banished to a
rural collective farm for re-education.
The spy agency, which has a mixed
record on tracking North Korea, said
Wednesday it was trying to check
details about developments about choe.

Choe's reported banishment had

been seen as the latest in a series of
executions, purges and dismissals
that Kim Jong Un has orchestrated in
what outside analysts say was a
further strengthening of his grip on
power.