Kim Yong-nam

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...

On 18 March Kim Yong-nam President of the Supreme People's Assembly and North Korea's effective deputy leader flew to Uganda Namibia and Angola to sign trade and defence deals...

Kim Yong-nam's visit to Namibia was at the invitation of its President Hifikepunye Pohamba partly in thanks for North Korea's construction of the lavish new State House in Windhoek the US$70 million contract for which was won by North Korea's Mansudae Overseas Projects...