OREANDA-NEWS  North Korean functionary Kim Yong Nam, who was the highest official of the state in accordance with the Constitution of the DPRK from 1998 to 2019, died at the age of 97 from cancer. This is reported by the Central Telegraphic Agency of Korea (KCNA).

"Kim Yong Nam's life was the brilliant life of a revolutionary who devoted himself to the revolution with the highest honor, pure loyalty and high ability, surrounded by the care of the party and the leader," the note says.

The politician was born in 1928 in Pyongyang. Since 1946, he studied in Russia, first at the Faculty of History of Tomsk State University, and then at Rostov State University.

Later, Kim Yong Nam moved up the party ladder and in 1998 became Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, that is, the highest official of the state. In this capacity, he attended the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 and the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014.

The state commission for the organization of Kim Yong Nam's funeral included one hundred people, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The coffin removal will take place on November 5th.

Earlier, Kim Jong-un, during a ceremony dedicated to the beginning of the construction of the Memorial Museum of Military Exploits in a foreign military operation, said that friendship between Russia and the DPRK is at its peak.