Human Interest

North Korea’s longest-serving parliamentary chairman dies at 93

Seoul, Jan 21 (EFE).- Choe Thae-bok, the longest-serving chairman of the North Korean Supreme People’s Assembly, has died at the age of 93, according to state media on Sunday.

State news outlet KCNA reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited Choe’s coffin along with other senior officials of the Workers’ Party (WPK, whose Central Committee Choe also headed) at dawn on Sunday “to express his deepest condolences over his death.”

“Kim Jong-un paid silent tribute to Choe Thae Bok who performed distinguished feats in the sacred struggle for the development of the WPK and the DPRK government with his boundless loyalty to the leader, transparent revolutionary principle and spirit of devoted service to the country and its people,” he said.

DPRK is the acronym for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea.

The KCNA obituary said Kim looked at Choe ‘s coffin with the “bitter feeling of losing an old revolutionary who had grown up to be a competent official in the field of education (…) and devoted his all to the implementation of the policy of the Party on science and education, the development of socialist culture and the dynamic advance of the revolutionary cause till the end of his life.”

Born on Dec. 1, 1930 in the province of South Pyongan, Choe was the longest-serving chairman of the Supreme People’s Assembly (parliament) on record. He directed the organization between 1998 and 2019.

Fluent in English, German and Russian, Choe was loyal to the regime throughout three generations of leaders and held key positions in fields such as education and foreign affairs.

Choe’s last public appearance was in 2022, at an event held to mark the anniversary of the founding of North Korea, on Sep. 9. EFE

asb-mra/tw

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