Yang Hyong-sop

Korean spelling
Chosŏn'gŭl	양형섭
Hancha	楊 亨 燮
Revised Romanization	Yang Hyeong-seop
McCune- Reischauer	Yang Hyŏngsŏp
See also : Korean name

Yang Hyong-sop (born October 1, 1925 in Hamhŭng , Hamgyŏng-namdo ) is a North Korean politician of the Labor Party of Korea (PdAK), who is currently Vice President of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly and a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee (ZK) of the PdAK . Between 1983 and 1998 he was chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and as such was head of state of North Korea after Kim Il-sung's death on July 8, 1994 until he was replaced by Kim Yong-nam on September 5, 1998 .

Life

Yang Hyong-sop joined the Korean People's Army in June 1950 during the Korean War and graduated from Kim Il-sung University after the war . After completing his studies, he was first head of a section in the Central Committee of the PdAK before he became Secretary of the Central Committee. Yang, who is married to Kim Shin-sook, a cousin of Kim Il-sung, completed further studies at Lomonosov University in Moscow and after his return in October 1961 became director of the party school of the PdAK Central Committee.

Yang Hyong-sop, who was first elected deputy of the Supreme People's Assembly in October 1962 and has been a member of it ever since, was appointed chairman of the Democratic Front for Reunification in October 1979 and has held this position ever since. In addition, he was appointed chairman of the Academy of Sciences in October 1980 and has since been Minister for Higher Education .

In 1983, Yang became chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly , making it President of Parliament. In this capacity he also became de facto President after the death of Kim Il-sung on July 8, 1994, although the position of President has not been filled since then. In addition, from February 1984 he was Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland . A change in the constitution resulted in a redistribution of power in 1998: the function of head of state was taken over by Kim Yong-nam, who became chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly on September 5, 1998 , while Choe Thae-bok became chairman on September 5, 1998 the Supreme People's Assembly was the new President of Parliament. Yang lost his two top positions and has since served as Vice President of the Supreme People's Assembly, making him one of the Deputy Presidents of Parliament.

Yang, who gave a speech at a mass gathering in Pyongyang on January 6, 2007 , in which he praised the North Korean government for building nuclear weapons , was elected a member of the Central Committee's Politburo on September 28, 2010 at the Third Party Conference. From May 26 to June 9, 2011, he was on a state visit to Africa , during which time he visited Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea . In October 2012, he was in Cambodia and led it talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen .

Web links

• CV ( Memento from March 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Yonhap News Agency (Ed.): North Korea Handbook . East Gate Books, 2003, ISBN 0-7656-1004-3 , pp. 923 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
2. ↑ Yang Hyong Sop Visits Africa ( Memento from June 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (NK Leadership Watch from June 13, 2011)
3. ↑ Yang Hyong Sop Meets Hun Sen ( Memento from October 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (NK Leadership Watch from October 21, 2012)

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Yang is the family name here, Hyong-sop is the first name.