[2] Kim was born in 1934 in South Pyongan, when the Korean Peninsula was still under Japanese rule.

[4] He was a recipient of the Kim Il-sung Order, the highest decoration of the North Korean government.

[1] According to author Bradley K. Martin, Kim was interned in a 're-education camp' for three years from 1979 because he had an affair with a female colleague.

[6] In 1992, he visited New York City to prepare for North Korea's accession to the United Nations and held the highest-level US-DPRK diplomatic meetings to that time with Arnold Kanter, Richard Solomon, Douglas Paal, and James Lilley of the U.S. State Department.

[2] After reportedly being involved in a car accident in June 2003, he was hospitalised, and succumbed to his injuries on 23 October 2003.