Born in Pyongyang in 1928 while the Korean peninsula was under Japanese occupation Kim Yong-nam came of age as Soviet-backed Kim Il-sung consolidated power over North Korea and set it on its singular isolated path...
Elected Chairman of the Presidium Kim Yong-nam's first act was to nominate Kim Jong-il to the Chair of the National Defence Commission thereby formalising the succession on 5 September 1998...
At 81 Kim Yong-nam is the regime's institutional memory and as the Dear Leader rarely leaves the Hermit Kingdom its top emissary...