North Korean Top Aid in charge of relations with South Korea Dies in Car Crash

A top aid from North Korea, who was in charge of relations with South Korea, has died from a car crash, state media revealed Wednesday. The official, Kim Yang Gon, was 73.

According to the Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yang Gon, who was the head of the United Front Department of the Workers' Party, died Tuesday morning from a traffic accident. There were no other details provided about the accident.

He is the latest top official to die over the past few years under the young leader, Kim Jong Un. Kim Yang Gon had worked under former leader, Kim Jong Il.

South Korean officials have not commented on Kim Yang Gon's death, which will surely stall progress between the two nations. The country's Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo did reportedly send condolences, KCNA reported.

"I worry that we cannot avoid long suspension of a dialogue between South and North Korea," Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea, commented, reported by the Washington Post.

Kim Yang Gon played a vital role in cooling tensions between the two nations after there was an exchange of fire back in August.

There were some speculations by the media in South Korea that Kim Yang Gon's death might not have been an accident based on the fact that there was little to no information provided. On top of that, North Korea has previously used the traffic accident line in describing the deaths of other top officials.

"Security is extremely tight when a high(-ranking) official is traveling through essentially empty streets. Yes they are known that they love to speed. So occasionally such incidents might happen," Andrei Lankov, a professor at Seoul's Kookmin University, said to CNN. "However, there is another reason to be highly suspicious. If you look at the North Korean history, we can see that a surprising large number of their high level North Korean officials have died in car crashes."

Some experts, however, have noted that Kim Yang Gon was close to the North Korean leaders.

"He was surely trusted by the Kim family regime," said Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, reported by CNN. "The one who appointed him head of the United Front Department was Kim Jong Il, the father of the current leader. And what we knew was that he was really close to young Kim Jong Un."

A funeral organized by top officials will be held on Thursday.