Hyong-Muk, a close confidant of North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il

SEOUL – One of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s closest confidants has died, state media reported on Sunday, with analysts saying his death could signal changes in the Stalinist regime’s internal power structure.

Yon Hyong-Muk died Saturday at the age of 73 of an “incurable disease”, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Yon, a Czech-educated technocrat, had served as vice chairman of the Stalinist state’s powerful National Defence Commission led by Kim since 2003, according to the agency monitored here.Kim send a wreath “expressing profound condolences over his death”, KCNA said.”Though having no major impact on the North’s external policy, it may bring a change to the North’s internal power structure,” Koh Yu-Hwan, a North Korea expert and professor at Dongguk University in Seoul, told AFP.”As close aides to Kim Jong-Il are dying of disease and age or in accidents, a generation change by young North Korean elites to the leadership could come earlier than expected,” he added.KCNA did not name the disease from which Yon, also a former prime minister, suffered.Seoul’s Yonhap news wire service said he had surgery in Russia last year for treatment of pancreatic cancer.North Korea experts in Seoul said Yon’s death highlighted how vulnerable Pyongyang’s aging leadership was to illness and old age and reaffirmed the need for generational change.The North Korean news agency, describing Yon’s death as “a big loss to our party and people”, said a state funeral would be held for him.Yon had been regarded as one of Kim’s closest aides, accompanying the reclusive supremo to key public events, including the 2000 inter-Korean peace summit, according to North Korea watchers.Yon had long been involved in the North’s defence industry as heavy industry minister, and in the development of Pyongyang’s foreign policy as a communist party secretary.Born in November 1931, he also served as chief negotiator to high-level talks with South Korea in 1992 to work out the South-North Basic Agreement, a major step forward to rapprochement on the divided peninsula.”(I) feel so sorry for his death,” South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Yang Chang-Seok said in response, adding that his office, however, would not issue any statement about condolences.Yon’s death was the latest high-profile change in the internationally-isolated regime.Kim Yong-Sun, North Korea’s then ruling party secretary in charge of inter-Korean relations, died in a traffic accident in October 2003 at the age of 69.Song Ho-Kyong, then vice chairman of North Korea’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee who brokered the 2000 inter-Korean summit, died aged 63 of chronic disease in September 2004.Vice Marshal Jo Myong-Rok (75), the North’s most powerful military figure after Kim Jong-Il, had travelled to China for treatment for a worsening kidney problem up until last year, according to Yonhap.Jo has served as first vice chairman of the national defence commission which controls the country’s 1,1 million-strong armed forces.- Nampa-AFPYon, a Czech-educated technocrat, had served as vice chairman of the Stalinist state’s powerful National Defence Commission led by Kim since 2003, according to the agency monitored here.Kim send a wreath “expressing profound condolences over his death”, KCNA said.”Though having no major impact on the North’s external policy, it may bring a change to the North’s internal power structure,” Koh Yu-Hwan, a North Korea expert and professor at Dongguk University in Seoul, told AFP.”As close aides to Kim Jong-Il are dying of disease and age or in accidents, a generation change by young North Korean elites to the leadership could come earlier than expected,” he added.KCNA did not name the disease from which Yon, also a former prime minister, suffered.Seoul’s Yonhap news wire service said he had surgery in Russia last year for treatment of pancreatic cancer.North Korea experts in Seoul said Yon’s death highlighted how vulnerable Pyongyang’s aging leadership was to illness and old age and reaffirmed the need for generational change.The North Korean news agency, describing Yon’s death as “a big loss to our party and people”, said a state funeral would be held for him.Yon had been regarded as one of Kim’s closest aides, accompanying the reclusive supremo to key public events, including the 2000 inter-Korean peace summit, according to North Korea watchers.Yon had long been involved in the North’s defence industry as heavy industry minister, and in the development of Pyongyang’s foreign policy as a communist party secretary.Born in November 1931, he also served as chief negotiator to high-level talks with South Korea in 1992 to work out the South-North Basic Agreement, a major step forward to rapprochement on the divided peninsula.”(I) feel so sorry for his death,” South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Yang Chang-Seok said in response, adding that his office, however, would not issue any statement about condolences.Yon’s death was the latest high-profile change in the internationally-isolated regime.Kim Yong-Sun, North Korea’s then ruling party secretary in charge of inter-Korean relations, died in a traffic accident in October 2003 at the age of 69.Song Ho-Kyong, then vice chairman of North Korea’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee who brokered the 2000 inter-Korean summit, died aged 63 of chronic disease in September 2004.Vice Marshal Jo Myong-Rok (75), the North’s most powerful military figure after Kim Jong-Il, had travelled to China for treatment for a worsening kidney problem up until last year, according to Yonhap.Jo has served as first vice chairman of the national defence commission which controls the country’s 1,1 million-strong armed forces.- Nampa-AFP