(MENAFN) Kim Yong-nam, the last ceremonial leader of North Korea, has passed away at the age of 97, according to reports from the country’s state media on Tuesday.

A news agency confirmed that Kim died on November 3 due to multiple organ failure following an illness. He was not a relative of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

From 1998 until 2019, Kim held the position of head of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, North Korea’s parliament, which is considered the nation’s highest ceremonial office. Prior to that, he served as the country’s foreign minister from 1983 to 1998.

According to a media outlet, those who met him described him as “mild-mannered but firm in his views.”

Following his retirement in 2019 and subsequent constitutional reforms, the responsibilities once linked to the head of state were transferred to the State Affairs Commission, led by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Kim Yong-nam maintained strong connections with the Soviet Union and Russia. He was educated in the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1959, studying history at Tomsk and Rostov State Universities. Over the years, Kim made numerous visits to the USSR and later Russia.

Among his recent international appearances, he attended the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War in Moscow in 2015 and the FIFA World Cup in 2018, meeting President Vladimir Putin on both occasions.

He was also present at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

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