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Yon Hyong-muk | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 7thPremier of North Korea | |
| In office 11 December 1988 – 11 December 1992 | |
| Leader | Kim Il Sung |
| Preceded by | Ri Kun-mo |
| Succeeded by | Kang Song-san |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 November 1931 Kyongwon County,Kankyōhoku-dō,Korea,Empire of Japan |
| Died | 22 October 2005(2005-10-22) (aged 73) Pyongyang, North Korea |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 연형묵 |
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | Yeon Hyeongmuk |
| McCune–Reischauer | Yŏn Hyŏngmuk |
Yon Hyong-muk (Korean: 연형묵; November 3, 1931 – October 22, 2005), also speltYong Hyong-muk, was a long-serving politician inNorth Korea and at the height of his career the most powerful person in that country outside theKim family. He wasPrime Minister of North Korea from 1988 to 1992.[1]
He was born inKyongwon County,Kankyōhoku-dō,Korea, Empire of Japan (now inNorth Hamgyong Province, North Korea) and had a strong revolutionary background in his family. He was educated locally and employed as a farm worker.[1] Yon was educated inCzechoslovakia and by the 1950s, he was firmly established within the hierarchy of theWorkers' Party of Korea. In 1967 he was selected as a deputy to theSupreme People's Assembly.[1]
During the 1970s, Yon further advanced in the Party and by the middle 1980s he was regarded as the fourth most powerful person in North Korea afterKim Il Sung,Kim Jong Il, and veteranmarshal anddefence ministerO Jin-u. He was a candidate member of thePolitburo from the early 1980s and becamePrime Minister of North Korea in 1989. During this era, Yon served asMinister of Heavy Industry and this consolidated his role in the North'slarge armaments sector.
In this period, as Kim Il Sung and O Jin-u were both already past eighty, Yon took an important role inrelations between North and South Korea. He worked hard in this field as Prime Minister and was regarded as the chief negotiator behind theAgreement on Reconciliation, Non-aggression and Exchanges and Cooperation between the South and the North (also known as the "South-North Basic Agreement") of 1991.[2][3] At the time he called it "the most valuable achievement ever made between the South and North Korean authorities."[2] For the rest of the 1990s, Yon was the chief figure behind efforts toreconcile the two Koreas.
By the 2000s, Yon was declining in health and his role inNorth Korean politics had become largely ceremonial by the time he died - presumably ofpancreatic cancer for which he had received treatment inRussia in 2004 at the well protectedCentral Clinical Hospital.
Yon was a recipient of theOrder of Kim Il Sung,Hero of Labor and other awards.[4]
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Yon died on 22 October 2005. A funeral committee chaired byJo Myong-rok was appointed.[4] Its members were:[5]