Ho Dam Explained

Ho Dam
Office:Minister of Foreign Affairs
Term Start:1970
Term End:1983
Predecessor:Pak Song-chol
Successor:Kim Yong-nam
Birth Date:6 March 1929
Spouse:Kim Jong-suk
Party:Workers’ Party of Korea
Module:
Child:yes
Hangul:허담
Hanja:許錟
Rr:Heo Dam
Mr:Hŏ Tam
Context:north
Birth Place:Genzan, Kankyōnan-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan
(today Wonsan, Kangwon Province, North Korea
Death Place:Pyongyang, North Korea

Ho Dam (; March 6, 1929 – May 11, 1991)[1] was a North Korean politician, and Foreign Minister from 1970 to 1983.[2]

He was a member of the ruling Politburo of North Korea's Communist Party, and was also chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, which made nominal efforts to reunite the Communist North with the capitalist South.[2]

As Foreign Minister in 1977, he became the first senior North Korean official to visit the United States. He left the Foreign Minister's job in 1983 and became secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. In 1980, he accompanied Kim Il Sung to Belgrade, Yugoslavia for the funeral of the Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980).

In 1990 he was named chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's parliament.[2]

Ho Dam died on May 11, 1991, from a long illness, according to KCNA. The news agency did not specify the cause of death.[2]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Index Ho-Hy.
  2. News: Associated Press. May 14, 1991. Ho Dam; North Korean Official, 62. The New York Times. https://web.archive.org/web/20140621154729/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/14/obituaries/ho-dam-north-korean-official-62.html. 2014-06-21. June 21, 2014. live.