A 73-year-old North Korean aide to leader Kim Jong Un died in a car crash, the country's official news agency reported Wednesday. Kim Yang Gon was Kim Jong Un's "closest comrade, a solid revolutionary partner," the KCNA news agency said.
Kim, who was a secretary of the ruling Workers' Party,was part of a delegation that produced a deal in talks that followed an exchange of artillery fire between the North and South earlier this year, Reuters reported.
North Korea's road network is badly maintained and few people in the country own cars.
Still, several high-level officials have died in traffic accidents over the years, according to Reuters.
"North Korea has a long track record of suspicious deaths around high-level officials," North Korea expert Andrei Lankov told Reuters.
