Kim Jung Rin Dies

 

 

Kim Jung Rin’s Funeral and Burial Service 30 April 2010 (Friday)

 

KWP Secretary of Workers’ Organizations Kim Jung Rin has passed away.  Mr. Kim was 86 years old and had served as Workers’ Orgs’ Secretary since 1990.  In recent years, he could be seen in the North Korean media presiding or reporting at various events conducted by the Workers’ Orgs (Kim Il Sung Youth League, Korean Democratic Women’s Union, etc.).  In announcing his death, KCNA also reported the formation of a funeral committee:

The Central Committee of the WPK and the Presidium of the SPA of the DPRK announced that the late Kim Chung-rin would be accorded a state funeral and formed a state funeral committee with Jon Pyong Ho as its chairman and Kim Yong Il, Kim Yong Chun, Ri Yong Mu and 37 others as its members.

The state funeral committee informed that the bier of the deceased would be placed in the Sojang Hall, Pothonggang District,Pyongyang, and receive mourners from 10:00 to 20:00 on April 29 and the hearse would leave the hall at 8 a.m. on April 30.

 

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Diploreps to the DPRK at Kim Jung Rin's wake (photo: KCNA)

 

 

 

SPA Vice President Yang Hyong Sop (Photo: KCNA)

 

 

KWP Secretary of Cadres Kim Kuk Tae (Photo: KCNA)

 

Kim Jung Rin was a member of the Supreme People’s Assembly and the KWP Central Committee, elected as a candidate CC Member at the 4th Party Congress in 1961.

Prior to his appointment as Workers’ Orgs Secretary, Kim Jung Rin was involved in diplomacy and intelligence operations on the ROK and Japan, and Secretary for South Korean affairs on at least two occasions in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  In the early 1960’s he worked for the North Korean Red Cross.  He was also President of the Korean Central News Agency.  He was purged in the late 1970’s because he was a member of the patronage network of former DPRK Vice President Kim Tong-gyu who opposed KJI’s succession.  He became one of KJI’s principal supporters at the 6th Party Congress in 1980.

Kim Jung Rin was believed to be married to one of Kim Il Sung’s nieces (a daughter of Kim Yong Ju).  He was also known as a highly proficient writer and analyst.  He was also reported to have a somber and reticent personality.

KCNA reports:

Born in a poor peasant’s family in Usi County, Jagang Province, on December 7, juche 12 (1923), he grew up to be an able official under the care of President Kim Il Sung after the liberation of the country and devotedly worked for the Party and the revolution, the country and the people.

Holding the post as instructor of the Party Central Committee since 1952 and then as section chief and vice department director and department director and then secretary of the C.C., the WPK for years, he devoted himself to the work for the strengthening and development of the Party and the revolutionary ranks and the victory of the revolutionary cause of juche.

He was elected alternate member of the Party Central Committee in 1961 and since worked as member of its guiding body for a long period. He was active as deputy to the Supreme People’s Assembly since the third SPA in 1962.

He received Kim Il Sung Order, the highest order of the Republic, and Order of the National Flag First Class and many other state citations in recognition of the feats performed for the Party and the revolution, the country and its people.

An obituary of Kim Jung Rin was jointly issued by the C.C., the WPK and the Presidium of the SPA of the DPRK today.

The obituary said that he devoted all his wisdom and enthusiasm to the struggle for strengthening the Party organizationally and ideologically, consolidating the single-minded unity of the Party and the masses, achieving national reunification and boosting the international solidarity with the revolution, remaining true to the leadership of Kim Jong Il from long ago. The feats performed by Kim Jung Rin for the Party and the revolution, the country and its people will remain long, it added.

Kim Jong Il sent his custom floral basket, along with many others:

Seen by the bier was a wreath sent by General Secretary Kim Jong Il.

Wreaths were laid there in the name of the WPK Central Committee and the Presidium of the SPA and the Cabinet of the DPRK, the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces, working people’s organizations, ministries, national institutions, party and power organs in Pyongyang, etc.

The mourners observed a moment’s silence in memory of Kim Jung Rin.