TOKYO (Sputnik) – A senior official of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party who was in charge of a government unit dealing with relations with South Korea has died in a car crash, state media report.
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Yang Gon died on Tuesday morning in a car accident at the age of 73. No further details were provided.
The senior official took part in the August talks between North and South Korea, which were organized after tensions on the peninsula escalated as North Korea reportedly fired shells at a South Korean military base across the demilitarized zone. Seoul responded with dozens of heavy artillery rounds.
The talks, attended by Kim Yang Gon and Hwang Pyong So, director of the General Political Bureau of the North Korean People's Army, as well as Kim Kwan-jin, top security adviser to South Korean President Park Geun-hye and South Korea’s Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo, led to a deal ending the standoff.
South and North Korea are still formally at war, as no peace treaty was ever signed after the Korean War of 1950-1953.
