North Korea's top official on South Korea relations dies

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SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea's top official in charge of relations with South Korea has died in a car accident, the country's state media announced Wednesday. He was 73.

The Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim Yang Gon, head of the United Front department at the ruling Workers' Party, died Tuesday morning. It said a state funeral will be held Thursday for him.

Analysts in Seoul say strained ties between the rival Koreas could continue following the unexpected death of Kim, who had long handled relations with South Korea. The KCNA did not say who would replace him. Earlier this month, the rival Koreas ended rare high-level talks without any agreement.

Kim was a key associate of leader Kim Jong Un, who took power upon the death of his dictator father Kim Jong Il in late 2011. Wednesday's KCNA dispatch described Kim Yang Gon as the leader's "closest comrade-in-arms and steadfast revolutionary comrade" who had made "dedicated" efforts to push for unification with South Korea.

In August, Kim Yang Gon attended marathon talks at the Korean border that defused a military standoff trigged by land mine explosions blamed on Pyongyang that maimed two South Korean soldiers. The two Koreas subsequently resumed their first reunions of families separated by war since early 2014, but hopes of improved ties subsided after this month's inter-Korean talks failed to reach any breakthrough.

South Korea's Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo sent a message of condolence Wednesday, according to Hong's ministry. South Korea has previously offered similar condolences when senior North Korean officials died.

Kim Yang Gon visited South Korea in 2009 to pay his respects to late President Kim Dae-jung, who held the first-ever inter-Korean summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000. He was believed to have played a key role in arranging a second summit in 2007. Most rapprochement agreements signed after the two summit talks remain stalled or have never been implemented after animosities flared again between the rivals.

The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

A list of people forming Kim Yang Gon's funeral committee includes Choe Ryong Hae, another close associate of Kim Jong Un who South Korea's spy agency said last month was banished to a rural collective farm for re-education. South Korean media reported Choe's involvement in the funeral as a sign that he might have restored his power.

Choe's reported banishment had been seen as the latest in a series of executions, purges and dismissals that Kim Jong Un has orchestrated in what outside analysts say was a further strengthening of his grip on power.