Kim Yong Ju, Brother of North Korea’s Founder, Dies Aged 101

Kim Jong Un,

the North’s chief and grandson of Kim Il Sung, sent a funeral wreath and expressed his deepest condolences, state media documented.

Kim Yong Ju was portion of North Korea’s government in the country’s early a long time. In 1967, he proposed the authentic edition of a document—called “Ten Principles for the Establishment of the A person-Ideology System”—that however governs the lives of North Koreans. Kim Yong Ju, who rose to deputy primary minister, participated in the to start with inter-Korean talks in the nineteen seventies.

He was witnessed as a potential successor to Kim Il Sung at one issue in the nineteen seventies, while testimonies from former large-position North Korean officers have split on irrespective of whether Kim Yong Ju was viewed as a viable applicant for lasting chief or witnessed as a stopgap.

In the long run,

Kim Jong Il,

the eldest son of Kim Il Sung, was groomed for North Korea’s prime position—and Kim Yong Ju faded from electric power.

Kim Yong Ju was born in 1920, in an space west of Pyongyang, in the course of Japan’s colonization of Korea, in accordance to South Korea’s unification ministry. He moved to the Soviet Union in 1941, exactly where he studied politics and economics in Moscow. He returned to North Korea in the nineteen fifties after Kim Il Sung experienced risen to electric power.

Kim Yong Ju isn’t believed to have married or fathered youngsters, in accordance to Seoul’s unification ministry. His political increase was halted by September 1973, when Kim Jong Il replaced him as the head of the Workers’ Party’s business and steerage division, in accordance to the unification records. Kim Yong Ju did not hold a formal title yet again for approximately two decades.

In 1993, Kim Yong Ju was appointed vice chair and a member of the North’s ruling Workers’ Get together Central Committee. The subsequent 12 months he served on his more mature brother’s funeral committee. He held a seat in Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament till a number of a long time into Kim Jong Un’s rule, which started almost a ten years ago. He was last photographed in North Korean state media in 2015, after owning forged a vote at a regional election.

In Wednesday’s state media report, Kim Yong Ju was referenced as owning received some of North Korea’s highest awards for support to state and communism, which include the Buy of Kim Il Sung and the Buy of Kim Jong Il.

Kim Jong Un’s prolonged relatives now includes an aged 50 %-uncle,

Kim Pyong

Il, who put in decades dwelling in Japanese Europe as a international diplomat till returning completely to North Korea in 2019, in accordance to Seoul’s spy company. The oldest surviving next-generation Kim is

Kim Kyong Hui,

aunt of the current chief and a comprehensive sister of Kim Jong Il. She held senior government positions early in Kim Jong Un’s reign, nevertheless was sidelined after her spouse,

Jang Tune Thaek,

was executed in 2013.

Kim Jong Un has an more mature brother, who is believed to be uninterested in politics, while his youthful sister,

Kim Yo Jong,

has witnessed her position elevated in new a long time as a routine mouthpiece for U.S. and South Korean relations.

Produce to Timothy W. Martin at [email protected]