Kim Jong-un gave an emotional farewell to one of his top aides, who died on Tuesday in a mysterious car accident.The North Korean leader visited his mortuary as he could barely “repress his bitter grief”. Kim Yang-gon died in a car crash on Tuesday morning, but gave no details of the accident. It called Kim “the closest comrade-in-arms and steadfast revolutionary comrade of Marshal Kim Jong Un”. There are no details as to the circumstances of his death, which remains a mystery even as he was given a state funeral
Kim Yang-gon was one of two North Korean officials to hold talks with the South in August after two South Korean soldiers were injured in a landmine blast in the demilitarised zone. The two sides agreed to work together to improve relations but a vice-ministerial meeting this month failed to make any progress, feeding speculation that the aide was assassinated.
Kim Yang-gon, the secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party, is the fourth politician in North Korea to have fallen victim to an unexplained “traffic accident” since 2003.