Pyongyang’s former ceremonial head of state dies

North Korea's President of the Supreme People's Assembly Kim Yong Nam (L) arrives at Miraflores Palace to have a meeting with Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela November 27, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello

Kim Yong-nam (pic), the former head of North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament who served as nominal head of state for more than 20 years, has died, state media reported. He was 97.

From 1998 to 2019, Yong-nam served as president of the presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, a post that gave him a symbolic role as head of state.